
<S> . e&- . » . . . 



ESSAYS 



ON SOME OF 

THE DIFFICULTIES 

IN 

THE WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL, 

AND IN OTHER PARTS OF 

THE NEW TESTAMENT: 



BY 

RICHARD WHATELY, D. D. 

PRINCIPAL OF ST. ALBAN'S HALL, OXFORD, AND LATE FELLOW OF 
ORIEL COLLEGE. 



NEW-YORK: 

PRINTED AT THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL PRESS. 
MDCC(&XXI. 



ADVERTISEMENT 



The subscriber has been acquainted with the contents of this 
volume since an early period in the year 1829 ; but, although several 
fruitless efforts had been made, was unable to obtain the command of 
a copy until within a few weeks past. 

Unwilling that a work combining so much candor and humility in 
the search for truth with such abilities in its manifestation, should 
remain any longer so little known and inaccessible to his countrymen, 
he has undertaken its republication at his individual expense and risk. 
Dr. Whately's views, with a few slight exceptions, appear to him to 
approach as near to pure Scriptural truth as any human speculations 
with which he is acquainted. It is with the hope that they may tend 
to diminish 'vain and foolish questions, 3 and to increase the number of 
adherents to the truths the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, that 
he now offers them to all who thirst for sound knowledge, but more 
especially to those in whose lips it should be kept, his brethren in the 
Christian ministry. 

Part of the note to Essay V. has been suppressed, because the editor 
did not feel willing to give any sanction to the speculations it contained, 
or to afford them an unseasonable publicity. 

W. R. Whittingham, 



New -York, July 12th, 183L 



PREFACE 



It was my object in a former series of Essays to set forth 
the importance of an earnest and studious attention to the 
Christian revelation. There is a notion, more commonly 
entertained than acknowledged, that the Gospel is a mere 
authoritative republication of natural religion ; — that conse- 
quently it is chiefly, if not solely, to those of unphilosophi- 
cal and vulgar minds, incapable of perceiving the internal 
evidence of this natural religion, and the intrinsic beauty of 
virtue, that such a revelation is important or needful, — and 
that to the more intelligent and refined, it matters little 
whether or not they inquire minutely into the particulars of 
that revelation,— whether they believe, or disbelieve, or 
doubt its reality — or whether they even propose to them- 
selves the question. With a view to counteract this (as it 
may be called) heresy of indifference, — in my view the most 
deadly of all errors, not excepting Atheism, — I pointed out 
and dwelt on several peculiarities of the Christian reli- 
gion ; — points wherein the Gospel scheme differs from all 
other systems of religion, whether pretended revelations, or 
avowedly the offspring of human reason, that have ever 
existed. And the contemplation of these peculiarities must 
evince, I thought, the importance of carefully ascertaining 
whether the Gospel revelation is real or fictitious ; and if 
real, of endeavoring to understand as fully as possible its 
character, and to embrace it heartily as a rule of life. While 
at the same time the consideration that Christianity differs 
thus widely from every other religious system, in many im- 
portant points, and in many wherein they all agree, and in 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

those very points in which a true revelation might be ex- 
pected to differ from any scheme of man's devising,— this 
consideration, I say, presents a phenomenon well deserving 
the attention of such as are candidly inquiring for the evi- 
dences of this religion. For till unbelievers can propose 
some solution of the phenomenon, other than the truth of 
the revelation, which in so many centuries they have never 
accomplished, nor, as far as I know, even attempted, it must 
afford, at the very least, a strong presumption, that the reli- 
gion is really from God. 

These disquisitions seemed to lead naturally to some re- 
marks as to the mode in which the Scriptures should be 
studied. For if it be supposed (and the notion is very 
prevalent) that great part of them consist of a series of per- 
plexing difficulties, serving only to exercise the ingenuity 
of theologians in endless controversies, and barren of all 
edifying application, or even leading to dangerous practical 
consequences, the result will be, that the student's attention 
will be confined to a small portion of the sacred records, 
and to that portion which will, by itself, furnish the most 
imperfect view of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity : a 
result which cannot fail to foster the error above alluded to, 
of undervaluing the Gospel revelation, and regarding it as 
a mere authoritative declaration of certain moral truths. 

The first step, then, in an examination of the Gospel 
scheme, after we have once been convinced generally that 
it is worth examining, is to guard against the bias to which 
we are liable either from the apprehension of perplexing 
difficulties in it, or from a suspicion of the inutility or dan- 
gerous tendency of its most remarkable doctrines. Such a 
bias cannot fail to deprave the judgment as to the real 
character of the Christian revelation.- In the preliminary 
Essay, accordingly, I have endeavored not only to inculcate 
the importance of such an earnest pursuit of truth, and 



PREFACE. Vll 

steady adherence to it, as may overcome the seductions of 
indolence, and of seeming expediency, but I have pointed 
out also the several modes of self-deceit by which men per- 
suade themselves that they are, when in fact they are not, 
sincere lovers of truth ; and the way in which that tendency 
may be best combated ; namely, by assigning in every case, 
not, as is usually done, the second, but the first place, to the 
inquiry, What is true. 

In the second Essay, I have offered some remarks on the 
neglect or dread, prevalent among many persons, of St. 
Paul's writings ; on the causes which have produced this ; 
-^and on the consequences to which it leads. 

In the succeeding four Essays, I have treated of certain 
doctrines which have given rise to much controversy, and 
particular views of which have mainly contributed to the 
dread felt by many of St. Paul's writings. I have accord- 
ingly endeavored to show that the doctrines in question, as 
taught by St. Paul, afford no just ground of alarm ; and that 
the extravagant representation of them that some have given, 
has arisen from a hasty and partial view of the works of 
this apostle. In these Essays I have especially endeavored 
to set forth the importance of referring to the Old Testament 
as an interpreter, by analogy, of the New. 

Some other principles of interpretation, frequently over- 
looked, and very essential to the right understanding both 
of St. Paul and the other sacred writers, I have pointed out 
in the seventh and eighth Essays, as applicable to the doc- 
trinal and to the moral precepts of the New Testament 
Scriptures. The use to be made of the apparent contradic- 
tions we so frequently meet with, has been particularly 
dwelt on ; with a view to show that they ought not to be re- 
garded, as is commonly done, in the light merely of diffi- 
culties to be surmounted, but as a peculiar and most wisely 
contrived mode of instruction. 



VTli PREFACE. 

In the concluding Essay. I have applied the principles 
before laid down to the ascertainment of the sense of Scrip- 
ture respecting the doctrine of spiritual influence : — a doc- 
trine of the highest practical importance ; — one concerning 
which the greatest difficulties have been started ; — and in 
respect of which, more perhaps than any other. St. Paul's 
authority has been confidently appealed to by some in 
support of the most extravagant conclusions, and for that 
reason, depreciated or disregarded by others. 

In treating of these subjects, it has been my object, not to 
ascertain, on each point, every thing that may be reasona- 
bly believed and plausibly maintained; but, what we are 
bound to believe and to maintain as a pari of the Gospel 
revelation ; and this distinction I have more than once 
adverted to, as being one of the highest importance, and not 
seldom overlooked. 

In the prosecution of these inquiries, I have freely availed 
myself of whatever remarks or illustrations I chanced to 
meet with in various authors that appeared suitable to my 
purpose. As therefore there is, I trust, no novelty in the 
doctrines inculcated, so there is no pretension to complete 
originality in the arguments adduced. If I shall have suc- 
ceeded in selecting such as are at once sound, and generally 
intelligible, and in arranging and expressing them in a per- 
spicuous and interesting manner, the object proposed will 
have been accomplished. 

I have only to add, that the design of the present work 
being, not so much to refute or to advocate the tenets of any 
particular person or party, by means of an appeal to Scrip- 
ture, as to facilitate the interpretation of Scripture to those 
who are seeking in simplicity for divine truths, I trust it 
will be received by the candid, even among such as may in 
some points differ from me. with no feeling of party preju- 
dice or hostile suspicion. 



CONTENTS 



ESSAY I. 

ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 

PAGE 



§ 1. Christian religion distinguished from Paganism and character- 
ized, by its claim to Truth as established by evidence, and its 
demand of faith in that Truth ........... 1 

§ 2. Liability of Christians to act inconsistently with this characteris- 
tic, by not steadily following truth 5 

§ 3. Necessity of self-examination as to this point, ; — objections to the 

principle of universally pursuing and propagating truth . . 6 

§ 4. Danger of men's flattering themselves without sufficient grounds 
that they are lovers of truth ; — Maxim of making it not the 
second but the first question, what is the truth ; — obstacles to 
the cultivation of this habit, dislike of doubt : — love of origin- 
ality ; — excessive deference for authority ; — views of expediency 14 

§ 5. Cautionary maxims : no unfair argument to be used; — nor errone- 
ous notion countenanced; — no revealed truth to be suppressed, 
nor dread to be entertained of the progress of science ; — human 
approbation not often bestowed on the lover of truth . . , . 20 



ESSAY II. 

ON THE DIFFICULTIES AND THE VALUE OF ST. PAUL 3 S WRITINGS 
GENERALLY. 



§ 1. St. Paul more exposed than any of the apostles to the attacks both 
of open enemies and of false friends, — both personally ; — and in 
his writings 26 

§ 2. Ambiguity of the word Gospel ; — full instruction in the Christian 
scheme not to be found in the Four Evangelists ; — but in the 
apostolic Epistles; — especially St. Paul's; — danger of misinter- 
pretation not to deter us from the study of them 30 

§ 3. Study of St. Paul s writings not to be deferred till a mass of theo- 
logical learning has been acquired from other sources .... 42 

§ 4. St. Paul's writings dreaded chiefly from the unacceptableness of 
some of his doctrines ; — the vehemence with which his works 
have been decried, a proof of their importance 45 



CONTENTS. 



ESSAY HI. 
ON ELECTION. 

PAGE 



Importance of explaining those parts of Scripture especially from 
which dangerous consequences have been drawn 49 

§ 1. In order to understand St. Paul aright, we should be acquainted 
with his character and situation ; — and with that of his hearers ; 
— his continual reference to the Mosaic dispensation; — which 
was the shadow of the Gospel 50 

§ 2. Disputes relative to Election ; — Election under the old dispensation, 

and the new, may be expected to correspond ....... 56 



§ 3. Questions, whether under the former dispensation Election was 
arbitrary ; — who were elected ; — to what the Elect were chosen ; 
— application, by analogy, to the Gospel scheme ; — confirmed by 
St. Paul's express authority; — and by the analogy of God's 
general providence ; — no technical uniformity of language_to be 
looked for in Scripture ; — misinterpretations of Scripture pro- 
duced by antecedent bias ;— errors in reasoning committed on 



both sides . . . .' 59 

§ A. Metaphysical difficulties, resulting from ambiguities of language ; 

— objections connected with the origin of evil, dangerous for both 

parties 71 

§ 5. The chief object of inquiry to be, what truths are revealed, as being 

relative to man, and practically needful ........ 75 

§ 6, The danger of misleading some and disgusting others, not to be 

wantonly incurred . 78 



ESSAY IV. 

OTST PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 

§ 1. St. Paul principally appealed to in support of the doctrines of the 
final perseverance of the Elect, and their full assurance of sal- 



vation ....... 81 

§ 2. Apprehended danger from these doctrines apt to lead to an opposite 

danger 82 

§ 3. Mode in which both dangers are to be avoided 85 

§ 4. Confirmation of the view taken from the example of St. Paul's con- 
duct ; — and from that of men in general 87 



ESSAY V. 

ON THE ABOLITION OF THE MOSAIC LAW. 

§ 1. The Antinomian system supposed to be favored by St. Paul's decla- 
rations relative to the abolition of the law 



CONTENTS. Xi 

PAGE 

§ 2. Obligations of conscience not weakened by the Christian's freedom 

from the Leritical law 95 

§ 3. Importance of resting moral obligation on a right basis . . . 93 

§ 4. Speculative Antinomians less common than practical ; — liability of 
men to content themselves with a literal observance of express 
commands 99 

§ 5. Principles substituted for rules under the Gospel dispensation : — 
tendency to prefer precise injunctions, to watchful self-govern- 
ment 102 

ESSAY VI. 
ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

§ 1. Statement of the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's transgres- 
sion, and of the righteousness of Christ 103 

§ 2. Scripture authority on which it is made to rest ; — interpretation of 

the passage appealed to 112 

§ 3. General drift of St. Paul in the passages which treat of the subject 117 

§ 4. Liability of men to be biassed by the love of system ; — no accurate 
and technical uniformity in the employment by the sacred 
writers of the word Justification 120 

§ 5. Evils indirectly resulting from erroneous interpretation of Scrip- 
tare 123 

ESSAY VIL 

ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS IN SCRIPTURE. 

§ 1. Difficulties of Scripture a reason for the attentive study of it . . 127 

§ 2. Principles to be kept in mind in this study 129 

§ 3. Knowledge revealed, not speculative, but relative to man, and prac 
tical ; — in language not scientific but popular ; — to be interpreted 
by comparing one passage with another ; especially those seem- 
ingly at variance 132 

§ 4. Apparent contradictions of Scripture numerous ; — for what pur- 
pose designed . 136 

§ 5. The knowledge imparted of mysterious truths analogical and in- 
distinct 141 

ESSAY VIII. 

ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TES- 
TAMENT. 

Moral precepts of the New Testament often conveyed in apparent 
contradictions 146 



Xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

§ 1. Reasons for the employment of this and other paradoxical forms . 148 
§ 2. Precepts, a literal compliance with which would be either impossi- 
ble, absurd, or unimportant ; — instance of the last kind . . . 152 
§ 3. The mode of instruction adopted sufficient for the candid and dili- 
gent; — for the opposite character none would have been suffi- 
cient . . 159 

ESSAY IX. 

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Indistinct notions entertained, at first, by the disciples of the cha- 
racter of their Master 163 

§ 1. Promise of Jesus to send the Comforter, not limited to the first 

age; nor relating to an abstract religious principle .... 165 

§ 2. Difference between the Jewish and the Christian Churches in this 

respect 167 

§ 3. Points of resemblance and of difference between our condition at 
present and that of Christians in the first age in respect of spirit- 
ual gifts . 170 

§ 4. Miraculous gifts peculiar to the primitive Church ;— for what pur- 
poses bestowed ; — when and how withdrawn 171 

§ 5. Extraordinary and ordinary operations of the Spirit compared , 176 

§ 6. The early Christians compared with those of the present day in re- 
spect of the signs of the gifts bestowed on each ; — faith required 
in the indications of power to work miracles 180 

§ 7. Equality in the most important point between the primitive and the 

present Church 1S6 

§ 8. Sign of the Christian's admission to the privilege of spiritual guid- 
ance ; — design of the Eucharist (note) 190 

§ 9. Example of the apostles to be followed by reversing in some points 
their procedure ; — complete certainty as to the rectitude of our 
judgments, unattainable 196 



ESSAY I. 

ON THE LOVE OP TRUTH. 



§ 1. That any one who undertakes to propagate 
or to maintain any religion should represent it as a 
true one, and should demand reception for it on that 
ground, seems to us of the present day so natural and 
unavoidable, that many probably would be ready to 
take for granted that this must have been the case 
always ; — that the question of " true or false ?" must 
always have stood, as it certainly ought to stand, on 
the very threshold of every inquiry respecting such a 
subject ; and that all who adhered to an old, or em- 
braced a new religious system, or rejected either, how- 
ever credulous, or prejudiced, or otherwise bad judges 
of evidence they might be, yet must have supposed 
themselves at least to be determined by evidence of 
some kind or other, to belief or disbelief in the truth of 
what was proposed to them. And accordingly, there 
are, probably, many who do not estimate the full force 
and importance of our Lord's reply to Pilate, " For 
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear 
witness of the Truth." 

A moderate acquaintance, however, with the habits 
and modes of thought which prevailed among the 
ancient Heathen, may convince us that the real state of 
things was by no means such as the above reasoning 
would lead us to suppose. Their minds were, on this 
subject especially, estranged from the love of truth. 
2 



2 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



Many circumstances indeed concurred to render them 
habitually indifferent to it. Among the learned, philo- 
sophical pursuits seem to have been originally intro- 
duced as an elegant recreation (fl^oX^) : and there can 
be no doubj, that many at least attached themselves to 
this or that sect, not from any sincere conviction of the 
truth of its doctrines, but to furnish themselves with 
suitable topics for declamations. The schools ? of the 
philosophers were a kind of intellectual palaestra ; and 
there was a close analogy between their disputations, 
and the prevailing gymnastic contests : eaclj was a 
game ; the object of which was victory, without any 
ulterior end, but only for the display of strength and 
skill, bodily or intellectual. And the zealous cultivation 
of rhetoric, to which the majority of eminent men made 
all other studies subordinate, and whose most appro- 
priate object is, not the discovery of truth, but the in- 
vention of arguments, could not but foster the prevailing 
disregard of truth. It seems, too, to have been the 
settled conviction of most of those who had the sin- 
cerest desire of attaining truth themselves, that to the 
mass of mankind truth was in many points iriexpedient 
and unfit to be communicated ; — that however desirable 
it might be for the leading personages in the world to 
be instructed in the true nature of things, there were 
many popular delusions which were essential to the 
well-being of society. And in the foremost rank of 
these they placed their popular religions. Their own 
notions respecting the deity were totally unconnected 
with morality; and they despaired of imbuing the vul- 
gar with the philosophical principles on which they 
made virtue to rest. They made it a point of duty, 
therefore, to testify by their example the utmost respect 
for the established religion ; and to impress on the 
multitude that reverence for the gods, and dread of 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



3 



divine judgment on crimes, which they themselves in 
their own more private writings derided. They did 
not, however, seek to effect this object, (and this is a 
circumstance deserving of especial attention,) by under- 
taking to prove the truth of the popular religions. He 
who labors to prove, implies the possibility of doubt, 
and challenges inquiry ; and they well knew that there 
was no evidence for the existing superstitions which 
could satisfy doubts, or stand' the test of inquiry. The 
only thing to be done, therefore, was to forbid all 
doubts as impious, — to suppress all inquiry ; and, con- 
sequently, to forego even the practice of asserting the 
truth of the established systems. They were main- 
tained as politically expedient, by the civil magistrates; 
whose appropriate instrument is not argument, but 
coercion ; and who for the most part utterly disbelieved 
them, and were sensible that they could not be estab- 
lished by evidence, yet were convinced that they ought 
to be established by law. And as it is the nature of 
legal enactments to produce, not belief, but merely 
outward conformity and submission, it was the inevi- 
table result of this state of things that the ideas of 
religion and of truth,— oi pious demeanor, and of 
sincere belief, — should come to be completely disjoined 
in men's minds ; and that they should be somewhat 
startled at the very pretension to truth as resting on 
evidence, in any religion, and at the requisition faith 
in it, on the ground of its truth. It was what they had 
never been used to. Philosophers of the most dis- 
cordant tenets, poets of all descriptions, politicians and 
other men of business, amidst all the variety of their 
views and conduct, had always concurred in maintain- 
ing the popular religions, and in maintaining them on 
any other ground than that of truth : "The worship of 
the gods is an institution of our country ; — these rites 



4 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



are venerable from their antiquity ; — the neglect of 
them would argue disrespect for our ancestors, and 
contempt for the laws ; — a respect for religion is useful 
for maintaining due subordination among the people : 
— These, and such as these, were the arguments ; and 
the conclusion accordingly drawn was, that every man 
ought to worship the gods according to the established 
institutions : truth, and belief in the truth, seem, in this 
matter, to have scarcely entered their minds. 

Pilate accordingly seems to have been perplexed by 
our Lord's reply, stating that He had come into the 
world for the purpose of bearing " witness to the 
truth." His inquiry, " What is truth ?" does not seem 
(as an eminent writer imagines) to have been made in 
jest ; the Roman governor was evidently in no jesting 
mood, nor at all disposed to treat Jesus with contempt ; 
but (for whatever reason) was very seriously intent on 
investigating his case, and procuring his acquittal. 
Whether there be sufficient ground or not for the con- 
jecture of some, that he was in expectation of Jesus' 
assuming the temporal sovereignty, by the employment 
of those miraculous powers of which no one could 
have been ignorant, and was disposed from views of 
personal aggrandizement to favor his pretensions ; at 
any rate it is plain he was endeavoring to learn what 
his designs and pretensions were ; and hence eagerly 
asked, catching, as it were, at his words, " Art thou a 
king then ?" The answer, in which Jesus claims to be 
a minister of the Truth, seems to have disappointed and 
perplexed him : " What is truth ?" he replied ; as much 
as to say, " what has truth to do with the present busi- 
ness ? I wish for information as to your claims and 
objects ; — what sovereignty it is that you pretend to, or 
aim at ; and you tell me about Truth ; what is that to 
the purpose ?" 



OX THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



5 



On this and on other occasions, our Lord points out 
Truth as, in an especial manner, the characteristic of 
his religion; "If ye continue in my words, then are 
ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the Truth, 
and the Truth shall make you free :" " I am the Way, 
and the Truth, and the Life." — 44 They that worship 
God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. — When 
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you 
into all Truth." — " And for their sakes I sanctity my- 
self, that they also might be sanctified through the 
Truth." His great adversary, on the other hand, is 
designated by Him as "a liar, and the father of lies." 
And the apostles of Christ, in like manner, perpetually 
make use of the words 44 Truth," and " Faith," to 
designate the Christian religion. By all which, more, 
I conceive, was implied than that the religion is true, 
and is the only true one, and that faith in it is required ; 
in the present day this would be implied by the very 
circumstance of preaching any religion ; but in those 
days the very pretension to truth, — the very demand 
of faith, were characteristic distinctions of the Gospel: 
the Heathen mythology not only was not true, but was 
not even supported as true ; it not only deserved no 
faith, but it demanded none. It was needful, therefore, 
to inform and remind men not merely of the strength 
of the Gospel claims, but of the nature of those claims ; 
to point, out not only the force of the evidence in its 
favor, but its appeal to evidence. 

§ 2. Bat how, it may be said, do these considerations 
affect us Christians of the present day? We, it is to 
be hoped, are not chargeable with that culpable care- 
lessness about truth, especially in religious matters, 
which characterized the ancients. We do believe in 
Jesus as 44 the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." 
2* 



6 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



Let it be remembered, however, that as the ancient 
Heathen are not the standard by which we are to be 
measured; so it is not our superiority to them that will 
at once acquit us. They had many excuses, of which 
we have none, for their disregard of truth : in particular, 
they knew not (as we do) of any religion that did 
challenge inquiry, and appeal to evidence, and demand 
well-grounded and firm belief — that taught them to 
"prove all things, and hold fast that which is right," 
and to be "ready to give a reason of their faith." Do 
Christians, then, in this respect, show themselves wor- 
thy of their peculiar advantages ? Do they speak and 
act altogether consistently with a religion which is 
built on Faith in the Truth? The professors of such 
a religion ought not merely to believe it in sincerity, 
but to adhere scrupulously to Truth in the means em- 
ployed on every occasion, as well as in the ends pro- 
posed, and to follow fearlessly wherever Truth may lead. 

Now we should recollect that most of the pretended 
miracles, the " pious frauds," as they are called, per- 
petrated by the Papists, and many others, are, or at 
least were, in the first instance, the work of men who 
were sincere believers in the truth of their religion ; it 
is, indeed, on this ground alone that they can claim the 
title of pious frauds. But they were men who knew 
" not what manner of spirit they were of:" they sought 
to promote, by means of falsehood, the cause of Him 
who lived and died for the Truth : they believed the 
Gospel to have come from God, but wanted faith in 
his power and care to support and prosper it, and turned 
aside from the straight path of sincerity, to seek for the 
expedient by the crooked roads of worldly policy. But 
still, though most unchristian in their spirit, though 
they had " neither part nor lot in this matter, but were 
in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity," 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



7 



their general belief in Christianity was doubtless, in 
most instances, sincere ; and I have adverted to their 
case for the very purpose of pointing out the important 
circumstance, that the fullest conviction of the truth of 
the cause in which we may he engaged, is no security 
against our sliding into falsehood, unless we are 
sedulous in forming and cherishing a habit of loving, 
and reverencing, and strictly adhering to truth. 

Protestants, however, in these times, it may be said, 
have no pretended miracles — practise no pious frauds. 
But how far is this to be attributed to a genuine detesta- 
tion of falsehood, as odious in His sight who lived and 
died in the cause of Truth, with a firm reliance on his 
providence ; and how far, to a conviction furnished by 
experience, that fraud is, in the end, detrimental to the 
cause it is designed to serve, and that in these days its 
success would be especially short-lived? To what 
degree each man is in each instance actuated by a love 
of truth, or by considerations of expediency, can be 
fully known only to the Searcher of hearts ; it is only 
by the most rigid self-examination that we can approach 
to the knowledge of this in our case; and it is so far 
only as the former motive operates that we are acting 
on Christian principle. It is undoubtedly a just maxim, 
that in the long run " honesty is the best policy ;" but 
he whose practice is governed by that maxim is not an 
honest man. 

§ 3. To suggest a few topics for the self-examination 
I have alluded to, may not be unsuitable with a view 
to the inquiries we are engaged in. That all, even of 
the learned and sagacious, have not arrived at true 
conclusions respecting the doctrines of Scripture, is at 
once evident from the great diversity of their conclu- 
sions. It is necessary to consider, therefore, how we 



s 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



may best escape being of the number of those who fall 
into such various errors ; — how we may be best quali- 
fied for profiting by the lessons of Him whose " Word 
is Truth." And this must surely be by a fervent desire 
and sedulous watchfulness to acquire and preserve a 
sincere, unbiassed, and candid disposition. Without 
this, the highest ability, combined with the most labo- 
rious study, will do nothing towards the attainment of 
that object. 

That we may not, however, be led into too wide a 
field of discussion, it should be observed, that I do not 
propose to inculcate the duty of veracity in private 
life ; nor to enter on any metaphysical disquisition on 
the nature of truth universally, or on what may be 
regarded as the different species of it : nor to treat of 
the various kinds of evidence by which it is to be esta- 
blished ; but simply to speak of the importance, and 
the difficulty, of cultivating and establishing as a habit, 
a sincere love of Truth for its own sake, and a steady 
thorough-going adherence to it in all philosophical, 
and especially in religious inquiries. 

The first step towards attaining this state of mind, 
and ascertaining how far we have attained it, must evi- 
dently be a strong conviction of its value, together with 
a distrust of ourselves. If we either care not to be 
lovers of Truth, or take for granted that we are such, 
without taking any pains to acquire the habit, it is 
not likely that we ever shall acquire it. I must here, 
therefore, briefly notice some objections which I have 
heard urged against the very effort to cultivate such a 
habit as I am recommending ; though, in fact, they arise 
from misapprehension, and are directed against a mis- 
taken view of the subject. 

1. The first is, that we cannot be required to make 
Truth our main object, but happiness ; — that our ulti- 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



9 



mate end is, not the mere knowledge of what is true, 
but the attainment of what is good, to ourselves and 
to others. But this, when urged as an objection against 
the views here taken, is evidently founded on a mistake 
as to the meaning of the maxim, that Truth should be 
sought for its own sake. It is evident, in the first 
place, that I am not speaking of the pursuit of all truth 
on all subjects. It would be ridiculous for a single in- 
dividual to aim at universal knowledge ; or even at the 
knowledge of all that is within the reach of the human 
faculties, and worthy of human study. The question 
is respecting the pursuit of truth, in each subject on 
which each person desires to make up his mind and 
form an opinion. And, secondly, the purport of the 
maxim that in these points truth should be our object, 
is, not that mere barren knowledge without practice, — • 
truth without any ulterior end, should be sought : but 
that truth should be sought and followed confidently, 
not in each instance only so far as we perceive it to be 
expedient, and from motives of policy, but w r ith a full 
conviction both that it is in the end always expedient, 
with a view to the attainment of ulterior objects, (no 
permanent advantage being attainable by departing 
from it,) and also, that even if some end otherwise 
advantageous could be promoted by such a departure, 
that alone would constitute it an evil, — that truth, in 
short, is in itself, independently of its results, prefera- 
ble to error, — and that honesty claims a preference to 
deceit, even without taking into account its being the 
best policy. 

2. Another objection*, if it can be so called, is, that 
a perfectly candid and unbiassed state of mind, a habit 
of judging in each case entirely according to the evi- 
dence, is unattainable. But the same may be said of 
every other virtue : a perfect regulation of any one of 



10 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



the human passions is probably not more attainable than 
perfect candor ; but we are not, therefore, to give a 
loose to the passions ; we are not to relax our efforts 
for the attainment of any virtue, on the ground that, 
after all, we shall fall short of perfection. 

3. Another objection which I have heard is, that it 
is not even desirable, were it possible, to bring the mind 
into a state of perfectly unbiassed indifference, so as to 
weigh the evidence in each case with complete impar- 
tiality. The evidence, for instance, for the truth of the 
Christian religion, it is said, a good man must wish, and 
ought to wish, to find satisfactory; one who loves and 
practises virtue, cannot be, and ought not to be indiffer- 
ent as to the question whether there be or be not a God 
who will reward it. This objection arises, I conceive, 
from an indistinct and confused notion of the sense of 
the terms employed. A candid and unbiassed state of 
mind, which is sometimes called indifference or impar- 
tiality, i. e, of the judgment, does not imply an indif- 
ference of the will, — an absence of all wish on either 
side, but merely an absence of all influence of the 
wishes in forming our decision, — all leaning of judg- 
ment on the side of inclination, — all perversion of the 
evidence in consequence. That we should wish to find 
truth on one side rather than the other, is in many cases 
not only unavoidable but commendable ; but to think 
that true which we wish, without impartially weighing 
the evidence on both sides, is undeniably a folly, though 
a very common one. If a mode of effectual and speedy 
cure be proposed to a sick man, he cannot but wish 
that the result of his inquiries* concerning it may be a 
well-grounded conviction of the safety and efficacy of 
the remedy prescribed ; it would be no mark of wisdom 
to be indifferent to the restoration of health ; but if his 
wishes should lead him (as is frequently the case) to put 



ON THE LOVE OE TRUTH. 



11 



implicit confidence in the remedy without any just 
grounds for it, he would deservedly be taxed with folly. 
Or a^ain, if a scheme be proposed to any one for em- 
barking his capital in some speculation by which he 
is to gain immense wealth, he will doubtless wish to 
find that the expectations held out are well founded ; 
but we should call him very imprudent, if (as many do) 
he should suffer this wish to bias his judgment, and 
should believe, on insufficient grounds, the fair promises 
held out to him : his wishes, we should say, were both 
natural and wise ; but since they could not render the 
event more probable, it was most unwise to allow them 
to influence his decision. In like manner, (to take the 
instance above alluded to,) a good man will indeed wish 
to find the evidence of the Christian religion satisfac- 
tory ; but a wise man will not for that reason think it 
satisfactory, but will weigh the evidence the more care- 
fully on account of the importance of the question. 

There are persons also, (though some of my readers 
will, perhaps, be disposed to doubt the fact.) who, in 
supposed compliance with the precept, " Lean not to 
thine own understanding," regard it as a duty to sup- 
press all exercise of the intellectual powers, in every 
case where the feelings are at variance with the conclu- 
sions of reason. They deem it right to consult the 
heart more than the head ; i. e. to surrender themselves, 
advisedly, to the bias of any prejudice that may chance 
to be present : thus, deliberately and on principle, bury- 
ing in the earth the talent intrusted to them, and hiding 
under a bushel the candle that God has lighted up in 
the mind. But it is not necessary to dwell on such a 
case, both because it is not, I trust, a common one, and 
because those who are thus disposed, are clearly beyond 
the reach of argument, since they think it wrong to 
listen to it. 



12 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



I am far from recommending presumptuous inquiries 
into things beyond the reach of our faculties ; — attempts 
to be " wise above what is written — or groundless 
confidence in the certainty of our conclusions : but we 
cannot even exercise the requisite humility in acqui- 
escing in revealed doctrines, unless we employ our rea- 
son to ascertain what they are ; and there is surely at 
least as much presumption in measuring every thing by 
our own feelings, fancies, and prejudices, as by our 
own reasonings. 

4. Lastly, another objection sometimes brought, not 
so much against the pursuit, as against the propagation 
of truth, is, that the minds of many men are incapable 
of rightly apprehending it ; that the attempt to teach 
some truths to such hearers as are not qualified for 
receiving them, and to remove some errors which they 
are not ripe for perceiving to be such, would only ex- 
cite their disgust towards every thing they might hear 
from such instructers ; or that some might assent to 
what they heard, while they put the most mischievously 
false interpretation upon it; or, lastly, that they might 
misapply even what they had rightly understood ; as 
persons ignorant of medicine often do mischief by ad- 
ministering, without judgment, some powerful remedy 
whose efficacy they have witnessed. Even thus, it may 
be said, will the unlearned, when they have been taught 
to reject some long-established error, proceed, when 
their minds are once unsettled, to reject well-grounded 
doctrines also ; and w r ill apply the arguments by w T hich 
they have been convinced in one case, to another, per- 
haps very different, (though they are incapable of under- 
standing that difference,) so as to produce the most 
erroneous results. 

Accordingly, it is urged, our Lord himself and his 
apostles abstained from teaching every thing at once to 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



13 



their hearers, because they " were not as yet able to 
bear them :" and even so important a doctrine as the 
extension of the Gospel to the Gentile world was not 
fully made known to the apostles themselves, for seve- 
ral years after they had received their commission. 

All this is, in a certain sense, true ; and as far as if 
is true, is no contradiction of the principle I have laid 
down, but an application of it. For to teach any thing 
which, though in itself true, will inevitably be misun- 
derstood by the hearers, is in reality to propagate not 
truth, but error ; and if our teaching has in any case a 
necessary tendency to lead a certain class of hearers 
into such mistakes as to other points, as we have no 
power to guard against, we are not enlightening, but 
leading them into darkness. If we were to suppose a 
case (to resort to an illustration I have elsewhere 
employed) of our informing a rustic that the sun stands 
still, while, for some reason or other, we had no means 
of teaching him that the earth turns round, he would 
evidently be more perplexed than instructed, and would 
be more than ever at a loss to understand the alter- 
nations of day and night. 

If then, on these principles, we withhold for a time 
some part of the Truth from those who are not yet able 
to bear it, — if we add " line upon line, and precept upon 
precept ; here a little, and there a little," — striving 
gradually to qualify the learner for a more full commu- 
nication ; — if we labor patiently to wear away prejudices 
by little and little, when the attempt to eradicate them 
abruptly would be unsuccessful, or pernicious, — we are 
pursuing that method of inculcating truth which is, 
sanctioned by Christ and his apostles. But if we make 
the ignorance, weakness, or prejudice of men a plea for 
suppressing or disguising truth, or for conniving at 
error, without laboring at the same time to remove those 
3 



14 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



obstacles ; — if we are content to leave them permanently 
under the influence of delusion, — to postpone, sine die, 
as the phrase is, the communication of religious truths, 
— to wait indefinitely for some unforeseen favorable 
conjuncture which we make no exertions to bring 
about, — we are proceeding in direct contradiction to 
the spirit of the Gospel, and the example of its Author, 
46 1 have yet many things," said he, " to say unto you, 
but ye cannot bear them now but he did by his 
Spirit, gradually impart this knowledge to them after- 
wards ; not to some subsequent generation, but to 
those very same individuals. " I have fed you with 
milk and not with meat," says St. Paul, " for ye were 
not able to bear it ; neither yet are ye able ;" he evi- 
dently implies a hope that they (i. e. not some future 
generation, but those very individuals) will be able to 
bear it : nay, he is evidently reproaching them for not 
being already better qualified for the reception of divine 
Truth. Indeed the very similitude of babes, of itself 
draws our attention, our hopes, and our endeavors, 
towards a progressive growth into manhood. 

§ 4. When, however, we have made up our minds as 
to the importance of seeking in every case for truth, 
with an unprejudiced mind, the greatest difficulty still 
remains ; which arises from the confidence we are apt 
to feel that we have already done this, and have sought 
for truth with success. For every one must of course 
be convinced of the truth of his own opinion, if it be 
properly called his opinion ; and yet the variety of 
men's opinions furnishes a proof how many must be 
mistaken. If any one then would guard against mistake 
as far as his intellectual faculties will allow, he must 
make it, not the second, but the first question in each 
case, 44 Is this true ?" It is not enough to believe what 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



15 



you maintain ; you must maintain what you believe ; 
and maintain it because you believe it, and that, on the 
most careful and impartial review of the evidence on 
both sides. For any one may bring himself to believe 
almost any thing that he is inclined to believe, and 
thinks it becoming or expedient to maintain. It makes 
all the differ ence, therefore, whether we begin or end 
with the inquiry as to the truth of our doctrines. To 
express the same maxim in other words, it is one thing 
to wish to have Truth on our side, and another thing to 
wish sincerely to be on the side of Truth. There is no 
genuine love of truth implied in the former. Truth is 
a powerful auxiliary, such as every one wishes to have 
on his side ; every one is rejoiced to find, and therefore 
seldom fails to find, that the principles he is disposed to 
adopt, — the notions he is inclined to defend, may be 
maintained as true. A determination to " obey the 
Truth," and to follow wherever she may lead, is not so 
common. In this consists the genuine love of truth ; 
and this can be realized in practice, only by postponing 
all other questions to that w T hich ought ever to come 
foremost, " What is the Truth ?" The minds of most 
men are preoccupied by some feeling or other which 
influences their judgment, either on the side of truth or 
of error, as it may happen, and enlists their learning 
and ability on the side, whatever it may be, which they 
are predisposed to adopt. 

1. One of the most common of these feelings is an 
aversion to doubt; — a dislike of having the judgment 
kept in suspense ; which, combined with indolence in in- 
vestigation, induces the great mass of mankind to make 
up their minds on a variety of points, almost according 
to the first suggestion that is offered. As the illustrious 
Greek historian expresses it, in language which will 
hardly admit of an adequate translation, araXcoVwpos 



16 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



ToTg rfoWoTg 7) %y)TYi&is t% dX^siocs, xal M <ra sVoifxa jxaXXov 
rpsVovraj. But he who would cultivate an habitual devo- 
tion to Truth, must be solicitous in the first place to avoid 
error ; and consequently, must in all cases prefer doubt 
to the reception of falsehood, or to the admission of any 
conclusion on insufficient evidence. One who has an 
aversion to doubt, and is anxious to make up his mind, 
and to come to some conclusion on every question that 
is discussed, must be content to rest many of his opin- 
ions on very slight grounds ; since no one individual is 
competent to investigate fully all disputable points. 
Such a one, therefore, is no lover of truth ; nor is in 
the right way to attain it on any point. He may more 
reasonably hope this, who, though he may on many 
points perceive some (and perhaps a great) preponder- 
ance of probability on this or that side, is contented to 
come to a decisive conclusion only on those few w T hich 
he has been enabled thoroughly to investigate. 

The fault I have been speaking of, is one which men 
are the less likely to detect in themselves, from this cir- 
cumstance ; that in many practical cases it is necessary 
to come to some decision speedily, even though we may 
not have before us the fullest evidence that we could 
desire, or even that we might hope, were more time 
allowed us, to obtain. The physician may be compelled 
to prescribe, or the general to give his orders, immedi- 
ately, and without waiting to examine all the reasons 
on both sides ; because delay would be as pernicious as 
mistake. In cases of this kind, the utmost we can do 
is to make up our minds according to the best reasons 
that occur ; and though we are not called on, even then, 
to come to any certain conclusion in our own minds, if 
there are no grounds for it ; yet we must act as if we 
were certain. And the habit is often in this manner 
acquired, of forming our opinions as hastily as our 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



1? 



practical decisions ; and that too, even in cases where 
no immediate step is necessarily to be taken — no danger, 
equal to the danger of error, to be incurred by remain- 
ing in suspense. 

2. To that dislike of doubt which has been men- 
tioned as an obstacle to the cultivation of an habitual 
love of Truth, many others may be added which aug- 
ment the difficulty. In many, it is the desire of origin- 
ality, heightened sometimes into the love of paradox, 
that preoccupies the mind. They are zealous for 
Truth, provided it be some truth brought to light by 
themselves. There are some accordingly, who have 
been right where prevailing opinions are erroneous ; 
and erroneous, where the rest of the world think rightly. 
And such persons often satisfy themselves that they arc 
guarded against this excess, by the severity of their 
judgments on their neighbor's originality, — by un- 
sparing rejection of every paradox, and every novelty, 
proceeding from another. A crude theory or opinion, 
means, in their language, one which (being new) has 
not first occurred to themselves. 

3. Others again, and they are more numerous, are 
unduly biassed by an excessive respect for venerated 
authority ; — by an undue regard for any belief that is 
ancient, — that is established, — that has been maintained 
by eminent men : they are overpowered, in short, by 
the " argumentum ad verecundiam." I mean not, of 
course, that the judgment of able men, and that of nu- 
merous independent authorities, furnishes no valid argu- 
ment ; only, that it should not supersede argument : — 
that every other description of evidence should be 
called in; — and that we should not think ourselves 
bound to adopt an opinion merely because it has been 
held by many before us. And some are so biassed by 
authority, that they not only admit carelessly as true 

3* 



18 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



what they have not examined, but even tolerate a con- 
siderable admixture of what they themselves perceive 
to be untrue : " Errare malo cum Platone, quam cum 
istis vera sentire," implies no uncommon kind of feeling. 
And besides, any errors which have long and extensively 
prevailed, are by many regarded as of no great practical 
consequence ; because they think, if they had led to 
any ill result, it would have been long ago manifest. 
This is indeed by no means universally the case ; for 
many doctrinal errors do lead to practical evils which 
are not referred, even by those who perceive them, to 
the causes whence they sprung. Protestants, for in- 
stance, perceive the immoral effects which naturally 
spring, in popish countries, from the doctrines of pur- 
gatory, indulgences, image-worship, &c. ; but a sincere 
Romanist, though he cannot but perceive the existence 
of many of these immoralities, is usually altogether 
blind to their connexion with those causes. And the 
Protestant who wonders at this blindness, is perhaps 
himself equally blind in some similar case. But though, 
as has been said, the alleged harmlessness of long- 
established errors is in general very rashly inferred, 
still it commonly is inferred ; and there are not a few 
who have more dread of any thing that savors of 
novelty, even when they perceive nothing objectionable 
in it, than of what is generally received, even when 
they know it to be unsound. And hence, he is the 
most likely to be by such persons accounted a safe 
man, not whose views are on the whole the most rea- 
sonable, but who is free from all errors, except vulgar 
errors. 

The two faults which have just been noticed, that is, 
a certain degree of each, are not unfrequently combined. 
The hasty adoption of striking novelties on some occa- 
sions, is not incompatible with a blind adherence to the 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



19 



received doctrine on others. All men have been told 
that wisdom consists in preserving a middle course 
between opposite extremes; and the weak, the uneandid, 
and the unthinking, often congratulate themselves on 
having attained this happy medium, by the mimic wis- 
dom of sliding alternately into each extreme. True 
wisdom would tell us not to receive one opinion because 
it is old, and another because it is new ; but to receive 
and reject none on either ground, and to inquire sedu- 
lously in each case what is true. 

4. The greatest, however, of all the obstacles to 
the habit of following truth, is, the tendency to look in 
the first instance to the expedient. Expediency does 
not, in reality, stand opposed to Truth, except when 
made its rival for precedence ; but while the genuine 
lover of truth always regards that as the only sure 
road to the expedient, the generality of men look out 
first for what is expedient, and are contented if they 
can afterwards reconcile that (which, with a biassed 
mind, they are sure to accomplish) with a conviction of 
truth. And this is the sin which most easily besets 
those who are engaged in the instruction of others ; 
and it besets them the more easily, inasmuch as the 
consciousness of falsehood, even if it exist in the out- 
set, will very soon wear away. He who does not begin 
by preaching what he thoroughly believes, will speedily 
end by believing what he preaches. His habit of dis- 
criminating the true from the false, the well-established 
from the doubtful, will soon decay for want of assiduous 
exercise ; and thus inured to the sacrifice of complete 
sincerity to supposed utility, and accustomed to support 
true conclusions by any premises that offer, he will soon 
lose, through this faulty practice, even the power of 
distinguishing what conclusions are true. 



20 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



§ 5. The temptations to this fault are so great, the 
occurrence of it so frequent, and the mischief of it so 
incalculable, that I cannot, perhaps, better close these 
remarks, than by classing, under a few comprehensive 
heads, the cautions to be observed in avoiding it, 

1. First, then, one who would cherish in himself an 
attachment to truth, must never allow himself either to 
advance any argument, or to admit and acquiesce in any 
when advanced by another, which he knows or suspects 
to be unsound or fallacious; however true the conclu- 
sion may be to which it leads, however convincing the 
argument may be to those it is addressed to, and how^ 
ever important it may be that they should be convinced. 
It springs from, and it will foster and increase a want 
of veneration for truth ; it is an affront put on " the 
Spirit of Truth ;" it is a hiring of the idolatrous Syrians 
to fight the battles of the Lord God of Israel. And it 
is on this ground that we should adhere to the most 
scrupulous fairness of statement and argument : he who 
believes that sophistry will always in the end prove 
injurious to the cause supported by it, is probably 
right in that belief; but if it be for that reason that he 
abstains from it,— if he avoid fallacy, wholly or partly, 
through fear of detection ; it is plain he is no sincere 
votary of truth. 

2. On the same principle, we are bound never to 
countenance any erroneous opinion, however seemingly 
beneficial in its results, — to connive at no salutary de- 
lusion (as it may appear,) but to open the eyes (when 
opportunity offers, and in proportion as it offers) of 
those we are instructing, to any mistake they may 
labor under ; though it may be one which leads them 
ultimately to a true result, and to one of which ap- 
parently they might otherwise fail. The temptation 
accordingly to depart from this principle is sometimes 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



21 



excessively strong ; because it will often be the case 
that men 'will be in some danger, in parting with along 
admitted error, of abandoning, at the same time, some 
truth they have been accustomed to connect with it. 
Accordingly, I have heard censure passed on the 
endeavors to enlighten the Roman Catholics, on the 
ground that many of them had become atheists, and 
many, the wildest of fanatics. That this should be in 
some degree the case, is highly probable ; it is a 
natural result of the pernicious effects on the mind of 
the Roman Catholic system; it is an evil spirit, which 
we must expect will cruelly rend and mangle the patient 
as it comes out of him, and will leave him half dead at 
its departure. 

Again: the belief in the plenary inspiration of Scrip- 
ture, — its being properly and literally the " Word of 
God," merely uttered, or committed to writing by the 
sacred penmen, in the very words supeniaturally dic- 
tated to them, and tne consequent belief in its complete 
and universal infallibility, not only on religious, but 
also on historical and philosophical points, — these no- 
tions, which prevail among a large portion of Chris- 
tians, are probably encouraged or connived at by very 
many of those who do not, or at least did not originally, 
in their own hearts, entertain any such belief. But 
they dread " the unsettling of men's minds ;" they fear 
that they would be unable to distinguish what is, and 
what is not, matter of inspiration; and, consequently, 
that their reverence for Scripture and for religion 
altogether would be totally destroyed ; while, on the 
other hand, the error, they urge, is very harmless, 
leading to no practical evil, but rather to piety of life. 
And, doubtless, similar feelings in the Romanists had a 
share in inducing them to retain the Apocrypha in their 
Bible : many of the learned among them must surely 



22 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



have known, that these books have no title to be con- 
sidered as part of the Holy Scriptures ; 44 but they are 
on the whole," they might think, 44 rather edifying than 
hurtful ; and to reject them might shake men's faith in 
the whole of Scripture." The same reasoning probably 
operates with many of them, to induce them to maintain 
the infallibility of the Church, — the authority of Tra- 
dition, &c. Indeed, the fault I have been speaking of 
is of the very essence of Romanism, which is a complete 
system of 44 pious frauds." Would that Protestants 
did not so readily natter themselves, that their separa- 
tion from the Church of Rome exempts them from all 
danger of errors like hers ! 

There is a strong temptation again to foster or con- 
nive at the popular error of expecting under the Chris- 
tian dispensation those temporal rewards and punish- 
ments which form no part of the system ; a mistake 
which no doubt haa often produced partial good results, 
and which there will often be, and oftenwr appear to be, 
danger in removing. Of the same character is the 
belief that the moral precepts of the Levitical law are 
binding on Christians ; and that the observance of the 
Lord's day is a duty to which they are bound by the 
fourth commandment. 1 Though the desired conclusions 
may in these and similar cases be reached by the paths 
of truth, there will be an apparent, and sometimes a 
real danger, that those who have been long used to act 

a- Of course, I am not at present alluding to those who, after a full 
and candid examination, are themselves convinced of this; — whose 
sincere and deliberate belief is, that the fourth commandment does 
extend to Christians, but that it is sufficiently obeyed by the observance 
of the first day of the week instead of the seventh ; or that the precise 
directions of an express command of Scripture, which is admitted to 
be binding on us, may allowably be altered by the traditions of the 
Church. Though I cannot but regard such views as erroneous, the 
error does not belong to the class now under discussion. 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



23 



rightly on erroneous principles, may fail of those con- 
clusions, when undeceived. In such cases it requires 
a thorough love of truth, and a firm reliance on divine 
support, to adhere steadily to the straight course. 

3. A like danger will often be our appointed trial 
in the converse case also; — in firmly resolving to sup- 
press no clearly-revealed Gospel truth, through appre- 
hension of ill consequences. Then only can we be 
" pure from the blood of all men, if we have not shunned 
to set before them all the counsel of God." He did 
indeed, Himself, think fit to hide for many ages, under 
the veil of the Levitical law, the coming of the Messiah's 
kingdom ; and it is but a small part probably of the 
great scheme of redemption that He has as yet im- 
parted to us ; but He has not authorized man to sup- 
press any part of what He has revealed ; and it is an 
impious presumption even to inquire into the expediency 
of such a procedure. 

4. Lastly, as we must not dare to withhold or dis- 
guise revealed religious truth, so we must dread the 
progress of no other truth. We must not imitate the 
bigoted Papists who imprisoned Galileo ; and step for- 
ward, Bible in hand, (like the profane Israelites carry- 
ing the ark of God into the field of battle,) to check the 
inquiries of the geologist, the astronomer, or the poli- 
tical economist, from an apprehension that the cause 
of religion can be endangered by them. Any theory 
on whatever subject, that is really sound, can never be 
inimical to a religion founded on truth ; and any that 
is unsound may be refuted by arguments drawn from 
observation and experiment, without calling in the aid 
of revelation. If we give way to a dread of danger 
from the inculcation of any Scriptural doctrine, or from 
the progress of physical or moral science, we manifest 
a want of faith in God's power, or in his will, to main- 



24 



ON THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



tain his own cause. That we shall indeed best further 
his cause by fearless perseverance in an open and 
straight course, I am firmly persuaded ; but it is not 
only when we perceive the mischiefs of falsehood and 
disguise, and the beneficial tendency of fairness and 
candor, that we are to be followers of truth : the trial 
of our faith is, when we cannot perceive this : and the 
part of a lover of truth is to follow her at all seeming 
hazards, after the example of Him who " came into the 
world that He might bear witness of the Truth.*' 

No one, in fact, is capable of fully appreciating the 
ultimate expediency of a devoted adherence to truth in 
all that relates to the Christian religion, except the 
Divine Author of it ; because He alone comprehends 
the whole of that vast and imperfectly-revealed scheme 
of Providence ; and alone can see the inmost recesses 
of the human heart ; and alone can foresee and judge 
of the remotest consequences of human actions. And 
much of the good policy of the course I have been 
recommending, which can be perceived by those of 
more cultivated minds, is beyond the comprehension of 
a great majority of mankind. The expediency of truth 
can be estimated by few ; but its intrinsic loveliness, 
by all. None are precluded, by want of intellectual 
power and culture, from that undoubting faith and firm 
reliance on their great Master, which will lead them to 
aim at truth, out of veneration to Him ; — to reject 
disguise, and sophistry, and equivocation, at once, as 
hateful to Him, without stopping to inquire what 
further evil they may lead to. 

And it is no more than needful that those who act 
thus should have a more than common assurance of his 
approbation : for they will often fail of that of their 
fellow men. Besides, being occasionally censured as 
rash and mischievous, they will constantly find a want 



OX THE LOVE OF TRUTH. 



25 



of sympathy in those (and they, I fear, are a great 
majority) whose character is, in this point, opposite. 
They may be valued indeed by many persons for other 
good qualities ; but that zealous, thorough-going love 
of truth which I have been describing, is very seldom 
admired, or liked, or even understood, except by those 
who possess it. Courage, liberality, activity, &c, are 
often highly prized by those who do not possess them 
in any great degree ; but the quality I am speaking of, 
is, by those deficient in it, either not perceived where 
it exists, or perceived only as an excess and extrava- 
gance. 

"There is nothing covered," however, 44 that shall not 
be revealed ; nor hid, that shall not be known." And 
the genuine and fearless lover of truth, who has sought, 
not the praise of men, but the praise of God " who 
seeth in secret," shall be 44 sanctified through his Truth" 
here, and by Him 44 be rewarded openly" hereafter. 
4 



ESSAY II. 



ON THE DIFFICULTIES AND THE VALUE OF ST. PAUL'S 
WRITINGS GENERALLY, 



§ 1. There appears to be a very remarkable analogy 
between the treatment to which St. Paul was himself 
exposed during his personal ministry on earth, and that 
which his works have met with since. In both he stands 
distinguished in many points among the preachers of 
the Gospel ; and it is possible that this distinction may 
in some way be connected with the peculiar manner in 
which he became one of that number. 

The same apostle, who had been originally so bitter 
a persecutor of the Christians, was exposed, after his 
conversion, to a greater variety of afflictions in the 
Gospel cause than any of the others. He not only had 
to endure a greater amount of persecution than any of 
the rest from unbelievers, but was also peculiarly 
harassed by vexatious opposition, and mortifications of 
every kind from his Christian brethren. He was not 
only " in labors more abundant," — he not only endured 
a double portion of imprisonments, scourgings, stoning, 
perils of every kind from the enemies of the Gospel, 
being especially hated by the Jews on account of his 
being the apostle of the Gentiles, the overthrower of 
the proud distinctions of Israel " after the flesh but 
he was also troubled by the perversity of his own con- 
verts : especially such of them as were corrupted by 
false teachers, who endeavored to bring them into sub- 
jection to the Mosaic law, and labored to undervalue 



st. Paul's writings. 



27 



his claims as a true apostle, and to rival him in the 
estimation of his own Churches. 

It is not unlikely that his Lord designed thus to 
place him foremost in the fight, — thus to assign to him, 
both the most hazardous, and also the most harassing 
and distressing offices in the Christian ministry, — on 
account of his having once been a blasphemer and per- 
secutor. Not as a punishment, — nor again that he 
might atone and make compensation for his former sin, 
which no man can do ; but that he might have an 
opportunity of completely retracing his steps, and of 
feeling that he did so ; — that he might display a zeal, 
and firmness, and patience, and perseverance, above all 
the rest, in the cause which he had once oppressed ; — 
that by having his own injurious treatment of Christians 
continually brought to his mind by what he himself 
endured, he might the more deeply and deliberately 
humble himself before God for it ; — that he might find 
room to exercise, in his dealings with unbelievers, all 
that full knowledge of the perverse prejudices of the 
human mind, with which his own memory would furnish 
him, by reflecting on his own case ; — and finally, that 
both he and the other apostles might feel that he was 
placed fully on a level with them, notwithstanding his 
former opposition to the cause ; by enduring and ac- 
complishing in it more than all the rest, by suffering 
more than he had ever inflicted, by forwarding the 
cause of Truth more than he had ever hindered it, and 
by bearing w T ith him this pledge that God had fully 
pardoned him — the pledge of his being counted worthy 
not only to suffer in his Master's cause, but to suffer 
more than any other, and with greater effect. He who 
had been accessary to the stoning of St. Stephen, him- 
self, alone of the apostles, as far as we know, suffered 
stoning ; he who had been so zealous in behalf of the 



28 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



law of Moses, was destined to encounter not only un- 
believing Jews, but those Christians also who labored 
to corrupt Christianity by mixing the law of Moses 
with it ; he who had been, as he expresses it, " exceed- 
ingly mad against the disciples, and persecuted them 
even unto strange cities," was himself driven from city 
to city by enemies whose fury knew no bounds, both of 
his own countrymen, and of the senseless rabble of 
idolaters who assailed him like wild beasts, at Ephesus. 
He who had misinterpreted the ancient prophecies 
respecting the Messiah, and despised his disciples, had 
to endure not only the contradiction and derision of 
unbelievers, but also the wilfulness and perversity of 
false brethren who misrepresented and misinterpreted 
the doctrines he himself taught, and of arrogant rivals 
who strove to bring him into disrepute with those who 
had learned the faith from him. a 

a "Here then we have a man of liberal attainments, and in other 
points of sound judgment, who had addicted his life to the service of 
the Gospel. We see him, in the prosecution of his purpose, travelling 
from country to country, enduring every species of hardship, encoun- 
tering every extremity of danger, assaulted by the populace, punished 
by the magistrates, scourged, beat, stoned, left for dead ; expecting, 
wherever he came, a renewal of the same treatment, and the same dan- 
gers, yet, when driven from one city, preaching in the next ; spending 
his whole time in the employment, sacrificing to it his pleasures, his 
ease, his safety : persisting in this course to old age, unaltered by the 
experience of perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion ; unsub- 
dued by anxiety, want, labor, persecutions ; unwearied by long con- 
finement, undismayed by the prospect of death. Such was St. Paul. 
We have his letters in our hands ; we have also a history purporting to 
be written by one of his fellow-travellers, and appearing, by a compari- 
son with these letters, certainly to have been written by some person 
well acquainted with the transactions of his life. 55 . . . . " We 
also find him positively, and in appropriated terms, asserting that he 
himself worked miracles, strictly and properly so called, in support of 
the mission which he executed ; the history, meanwhile, recording 
various passages of his ministry, which come up to the extent of this 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



29 



In all these troubles he was " more than conqueror, 
through Christ that strengthened" him. Trusting 
that his Master would enable him to go through the 
work to which he had been appointed, and would turn 
even the malice and perversity of men to " the further- 
ance of the Gospel," he "rejoiced that Christ was 
preached," even when it was " through envy and strife," 
by those " who thought to add affliction" to the apos- 
tle's bonds ; he exulted in that very bondage, because 
it was made the means of introducing him to the notice 
of some among the Romans to whom he might not 
otherwise have gained access ; (Phil. i. 12-18) ; and 
at Philippi, when cruelly scourged and imprisoned un- 
tried, by the Roman magistrates, he joyfully trusted 
that Christ would make even this a means of forward- 
ing his cause ; which was done in the consequent con- 
version of the jailer and his family ; the germ, probably, 
of the exemplary Church of the Philippians. b 

A like fate seems to attend the writings also which 
this blessed apostle and martyr left behind him. No 
part of the Scriptures of the New Testament has been 
so unjustly neglected by some Christians, and so much 



assertion. The question is, whether falsehood was ever attested by 
evidence like this. Falsehoods, we know, have found their way into 
reports, into tradition, into books ; but is an example to be met with, of 
a man voluntarily undertaking a life of want and pain, of incessant 
fatigue, of continual peril ; submitting to the loss of his home and 
country, to stripes and stoning, to tedious imprisonment, and the con- 
stant expectation of a violent death, for the sake of carrying about a 
story of what was false, and of what, if false, he must have known to 
be so? 5 — Paley's Horce Paulince, pp. 338, 339. 

b The whole narrative of this transaction is particularly affecting 
from the strong relief in which the incidents are set, by the quiet sim- 
plicity of the language : c: The magistrates rent off their clothes and 
commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon 
them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them 

4* 



30 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



perverted by others ; over and above the especial hatred 
of them by infidels and by some descriptions of heretics. 
Still may St. Paul be said to stand, in his works, as 
he did in person while on earth, in the front of the 
battle ; to bear the chief brunt of assailants from the 
enemies' side, and to be treacherously stabbed by false 
friends on his own ; degraded and vilified by one class 
of heretics, perverted and misinterpreted by another, 
and too often most unduly neglected by those who are 
regarded as orthodox. And still do his works stand, 
and will ever stand, as a mighty bulwark of the true 
Christian faith ; he, after having himself "fought the 
good fight, and finished his course," has left behind 
him a monument in his works, whereby 44 he being dead 
yet speaketh ;" a monument which his Master will 
guard (even till that day when its author shall receive 
the " crown of glory laid up for him") from being over- 
thrown by the assaults of enemies, and from moulder- 
ing into decay through the negligence of friends. 

§ 2. In order to avoid being misunderstood as to the 
sense in which St. Paul's writings have been spoken of 
as a principal bulwark of Gospel truth, and as to the 



safely : who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner 
prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul 
and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God : and the prisoners heard 
them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the found- 
ations of the prison were shaken : and immediately all the doors were 
opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the 
prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he 
drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the 
prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do 
thyself no harm : for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and 
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 
and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved 1" — 
Acts xvi. 22-30. 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



31 



censure passed on the comparative neglect they some- 
times meet with, I must entreat the reader's attention 
to some considerations, which, though frequently over- 
looked in practice, are so obvious when once fairly 
presented to the mind, that I fear it may be thought 
trifling to dwell on them. 

Of all the ambiguities of language that have ever 
confused men's thoughts, and thence led to pernicious 
results in practice, (and unspeakable is the mischief 
which has thus been done,) there are few, perhaps, that 
has ever produced more evil than the ambiguity of the 
word " Gospel." The word, as is well known, signifies, 
according to its etymology (as well as the Greek term 
of which it is a translation,) " good tidings ;" and thence 
is applied especially to the joyful intelligence of salva- 
tion for fallen man through Christ. The same term 
has come to be applied, naturally enough, to each of 
the histories which give an account of the life of Him, 
the author of that salvation; and thence men are 
frequently led to seek exclusively, or principally, in 
those histories, for an account of the doctrines of the 
Christian religion : for where should they look, they 
may say, for Gospel truth," but in the "gospels?" 
And yet it is plain, on a moment's reflection, that 
whether they are right or wrong in such a practice, 
this reason for it is no more than a play upon words : 
for no one really supposes that when the apostles went 
forth to preach the Gospel, the meaning of that is, that 
they recited the histories composed by Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John, which were not written till long after ; 
or even that their preaching was confined to the mere 
narrative of the things there recorded. 

But there is yet another and less obvious ambiguity 
in the same word : our Lord while on earth was 
employed, together with his disciples, we are told, in 



32 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



preaching " the Gospel of the kingdom ;" u e. the good 
tidings that " the kingdom of heaven (as He himself 
expressed it,) was at hand;" and good tidings these 
certainly were, to the Jews and others who looked for 
the Messiah's promised kingdom, (to whom alone he 
preached,) that this kingdom was just about to be 
established : and since, therefore, Jesus is spoken of as 
preaching the Gospel, many are hence led to look to 
his discourses alone, or principally, as the storehouse 
of divine truth, to the neglect of the other sacred 
writings. But the Gospel which Jesus himself preach- 
ed, was not the same thing with the Gospel which he 
sent forth his apostles to preach after his resurrection. 
This may at the first glance appear a paradox ; but on 
a moment's consideration it will seem rather a truism, 
that the preaching of Jesus and that of the apostles 
was not, and could not be, the same; though they were, 
each, the Gospel. I do not mean, of course, that they 
were two different systems ; much less, at variance with 
each other ; but the one was a part only, and the other 
a whole; or rather I should say, a greater part of that 
stupendous whole which is not to be entirely revealed 
to us here on earth,— the stupendous mystery of man's 
redemption. How, indeed, could our Lord, during 
his abode on earth, preach fully that scheme of salva- 
tion, of which the key-stone had not been laid, even 
his meritorious sacrifice as an atonement for sin, his 
resurrection from the dead, and ascension into glory, 
when these events had not taken place 1 He did indeed 
darkly hint at these events, in his discourses to his dis- 
ciples (and to them alone) by way of prophecy ; but we 
are told that " the saying was hid from them, and they 
comprehended it not, till after that Christ was risen 
from the dead;" of course, therefore, there was no 
reason, and no room, for Him to enter into a full dis- 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



33 



cussion of the doctrines dependent on those events. 
He left them to be enlightened in due time as to the 
true nature of his kingdom, by the gift which he kept 
in store for them : " I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when 
He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He shall guide you 
into all truth." There would have been no need of 
this promise, had our Lord's own discourses contained 
a full account of the Christian faith. But " the Gospel 
of the kingdom" which He preached was, that the 
" kingdom of heaven was at hand" not that it was 
actually established ; which was the Gospel preached 
by his apostles, after that Christ, " having been made 
perfect through sufferings," had entered into his king- 
dom, — had "ascended up on high, and led captive" the 
oppressor of men, and had "received gifts" to bestow 
on them. Our Lord's discourses, therefore, while on 
earth, though they teach, of course, the truth, do not 
'feach, nor could have been meant to teach, the whole 
truth, as afterwards revealed to his disciples. They 
could not, indeed, even consistently with truth, have 
contained the main part of what the apostles preached, 
because that was chiefly founded on events which had 
not then taken place. What chance then can they have 
of attaining true Christian knowledge, who shut their 
eyes to such obvious conclusions as these ? who, under 
that idle plea, the misapplication of the maxim, that 
"the disciple is not above his master," confine their 
attention entirely to the discourses of Christ recorded 
in the four gospels, as containing all necessary truth ; 
and if any thing in the other parts of the Sacred 
Writings is forced upon their attention, studiously ex- 
plain it away, and limit its signification at all hazards, 
so that it may not go one step beyond what is clearly 
revealed in the works of the evangelists? As if a man 



34 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



should, in the culture of a fruit-tree, carefully destroy 
and reject as a spurious excrescence, every part of the 
fruit which was not fully developed in the blossom that 
preceded it. 

Even if Christ had in person publicly preached 
after his resurrection, as well as his apostles, this plea, 
that " the disciple is not above his master," would not 
have excused the insult offered to Him in the person 
of his messengers ; the insult, I mean, of making the 
authority He gave them go for just nothing at all ; 
which it does, if they are to be believed, just as far as 
they coincide with what He himself uttered in person, 
and no further ; since thus far, any one of us is to be 
believed. For the apostles, who were divinely com- 
missioned by Christ himself, either were inspired by 
Him with his Spirit, which " led them into all truth," 
or they were not: if we say that they were not, we 
make Him a liar, for giving them this commission and 
this promise ; as well as them, for preaching what the 
did : if they were thus divinely authorized, it must 
follow inevitably that what they said was said by Him, 
and has exactly the same authority as if He had uttered 
it with his own lips. Even an earthly king expects 
that a messenger sent by him with satisfactory creden- 
tials and full powers, should receive the same credit 
for what he says as would be given to himself in per- 
son ; and would regard it as an unpardonable affront 
if the message so sent were rejected. " He that hear- 
eth you" (said Christ to his apostles) " heareth me ; 
and he that despiseth you, despiseth me : and he that 
despiseth me, despiseth Him that sent me." 

But in truth, not only is the preaching of the apos- 
tles to be regarded as of divine authority, and therefore 
not requiring confirmation from our Lord's personal 
discourses, nor submitting to limitation by them, but, 



STUDYING ST. PAULAS WRITINGS. 



35 



from the very nature of the case, it is impossible that 
such a complete coincidence should exist between them. 
I have just above supposed the case of Jesus himself 
preaching publicly after his resurrection, conjointly with 
his disciples ; but we know that He did not do this : He 
sent them forth to testify of events, and to teach doc- 
trines founded on events, which had not taken place 
during his personal ministry on earth. It is commonly 
supposed indeed by ignorant Christians, (ignorant, I 
mean, of what they might learn from the Bible,) that 
Jesus Christ came into the world to preach a true 
religion : but, in fact, He came for no such purpose. 
He did not come to make a revelation, so much so as to 
be the subject of a revelation. He was only so far the 
revealer and teacher of the great doctrines of Christiani- 
ty, as you might call the sun and planets the discoverers 
of the Newtonian system of astronomy : He accom- 
plished what he left his apostles to testify and .to 
explain ; He offered up himself on the cross, that they 
might teach the atoning virtue of his sacrifice : He rose 
from the dead and ascended into heaven, that they 
might declare the great mystery of his divine and hu- 
man nature, and preach that faith in Him by which his 
followers hope to be raised and to reign with Him. 
The Christian faith is not merely to believe what 
Christ taught, but to believe in Him. As the promis- 
ed Messiah, a man might believe in him while he was 
on earth ; but what the Messiah should be, and that he 
should be a Redeemer by his death, no one did or could 
understand, till that great work was accomplished ; the 
true nature of the redemption, and of the faith by 
which we must partake of it, and all the circumstances 
of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom (which did not exist 
during his ministry on earth) his apostles themselves 
could not collect, even after his departure, from all his 



36 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



former discourses, till they had received inspiration 
from on high, to enable them to preach the true doc- 
trines of the Gospel. And when they did understand 
this Gospel, they thought it necessary to give an expla- 
nation of it in their discourses and in their epistles. 
Those, therefore, who neglect their inspired preaching, 
and will learn nothing of Christianity except what they 
find in the discourses of Jesus, confident that they 
alone contain the whole truth, are wilfully preferring 
an imperfect to a more complete revelation, and setting 
their own judgment above that of the apostles. It is 
frightful to think how much they stake on this their 
supposed superiority; — what consequences of their 
blind presumption they may have to abide ; " profess- 
ing themselves to be wise they become fools :" and as 
they despise the teaching of the Holy Ghost who led 
the apostles " into all truth," is it not to be feared that 
if they persist in this their rejection of Him, He will 
give them over to their own vain conceits ; and leave 
those who have turned aside from the "living waters 
of the Spirit," to 44 hew out for themselves broken 
cisterns that will hold no water ?" 

The books, then, w T hich we call the Four Gospels, do 
not, it should always be remembered, contain an ac- 
count of the Christian religion, but, chiefly, memoirs 
of the life of its Founder, who came into the world not 
to make a revelation, so much as to be the subject of 
a revelation ; and who, at the close of his personal 
ministry, tells his disciples, 44 1 have yet many things to 
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Nor do 
the evangelists undertake the task of teaching the 
Christian faith ; since they wrote for the express use, 
not of unbelieving Jews and idolaters, but of Christians 
who had heard the Christian doctrines preached, and 
then had been regularly instructed (catechized, as the 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



37 



word is in the original) and examined, and, finally, 
baptized into the faith. Christianity was not (as many 
are apt to suppose) founded on the Four Gospels, but, 
on the contrary, the Four Gospels were founded on 
Christianity ; L e. they were written to meet the de- 
mand of Christians, who were naturally anxious for 
something of a regular account of the principal events 
from which their faith was derived. " Forasmuch as 
many have taken in hand to set forth in order, a decla- 
ration of those things which are most certainly believed 
among us .... it seemed good to me also to write 
unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus, that 
thou mightest know the certainty of those things where- 
in thou hast been instructed.''' 

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles contains a his- 
tory of the progress, but no detail of the preaching, of 
Christianity. Many of the discourses mentioned as 
having been delivered, are not themselves recorded : 
the object and design of the work being (as in the case 
of the Four Gospels) not to teach Christianity to its 
readers, who were already Christians, but to give them 
a history of its propagation. 

Our chief source, therefore, of instruction, as to the 
doctrines of the Gospel, must be in the apostolic epis- 
tles, which cannot, indeed, be expected to afford a 
regular systematic introduction to Christianity, — an 
orderly detail of the first rudiments of faith, calculated 
for the instruction of beginners entirely ignorant of it, 
since all of them were written to those who were al- 
ready converts to Christianity ; but yet, from the variety 
of the occasions on which they were composed, and 
of the persons to whom they were addressed, and from 
their being purposely designed to convey admonition, 
instruction, and exhortation as to Christian doctrine and 
practice, (which is not the case with any other part of 
5 



38 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



the Sacred Writings,) the apostolic epistles do contain? 
though scattered irregularly here and there, according 
to the several occasions, all the great doctrines of the 
Gospel, as far as it has yet been revealed to men, ex- 
plained, enforced, repeated, illustrated, in an infinite 
variety of forms of expression ; thus furnishing us with 
the means, by a careful study of these precious remains, 
and by a diligent comparison of one passage with an- 
other, of attaining sufficient knowledge of all necessary 
truth, and of becoming " wise unto salvation, through 
faith, which is in Christ Jesus." 

The most precious part of this treasure we have from 
the pen of St. Paul ; he being the author of the far 
greater part of the epistles, (about five-sixths of the 
whole,) and also furnishing even a greater variety still 
of instruction than in proportion to this amount, on 
account of the variety of the times, and circumstances? 
and occasions, which produced them, and of the persons 
to whom they were written : — individuals and entire 
churches ; Jews and Gentiles ; converts of his own 
making, and strangers to his person ; European and 
Asiatic ; sound and zealous Christians, and the negli- 
gent or misguided. The same faith is taught to all ; the 
same duties enforced on all ; but various points of faith 
and of practice are dwelt on in each, according to the 
several occasions. This very thing, however,-— the va- 
riety of the circumstances, the temporary and local 
allusions, and, in short, the thorough, earnest, busi- 
ness-like style of his letters, — cannot but increase the 
difficulty, in some places, of ascertaining the writer's 
meaning ; and those who are too indolent to give them- 
selves any trouble on the subject, shelter themselves 
under the remark of St. Peter, that the epistles of Paul 
contain " things hard to be understood, which they that 
are unlearned wrest to their own destruction." Un- 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



39 



learned, L e. not in systems of human philosophy, but 
in the truths revealed in the Bible. No doubt his wri- 
tings do contain " things hard to be.understood," but 
that is a reason why Christians should take the more 
pains to understand them, and why those who are com- 
missioned by the Chief Shepherd for that purpose, 
should the more diligently explain them to their flocks. 

Nay, but his doctrines, it seems, are not only difficult, 
but dangerous also, and, therefore, had better be kept 
out of sight, lest the unlearned should not only fail to 
understand them, but should " wrest them to their own 
destruction." Then let us throw aside the whole Bible 
at once, and invent a safe religion of our own ; for hear 
but St. Peter's words ; — " which thev that are un- 
learned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other 
Scriptures, to their own destruction." So that if this 
inference is to be drawn at all, from the danger to the 
unlearned of wresting doctrines to their own destruc- 
tion ; if to avoid the danger of misinterpretation, we 
are to seal up the book which contains them, the book 
so sealed up must be the Bible. 

Dangerous indeed ! yes, most good things are dan- 
gerous ; and the more, in proportion to their excellence ; 
to those " who are unlearned, and unstable i. e. who 
will not learn how to use them aright, and who are un- 
stable, — unsteady in giving their attention to gain right 
knowledge, and to apply it in practice. Meat and drink 
are dangerous ; for what multitudes fall a sacrifice .to 
intemperance ! Shall we then resolve to perish with 
famine, and let our children starve around us, lest we 
and they should thus wrest to our destruction the good 
gifts of God I Shall the pastors, who are commis- 
sioned to feed Christ's flock, shut them out from the 
principal pasture designed for their use, lest they should 
stray beyond its 'bounds, or come to some harm there ? 



40 



OX THE IMPORTANCE OF 



What are Christian ministers appointed for, but to in- 
struct the. people in the Scriptures, — to explain to them 
those Scriptures,-r-and to warn them against the errors 
arising from the wresting and perverting of God's 
word ? Ill would they perform their office should they 
dare to mutilate God's word, by leaving out every thing 
that is " hard to be understood," to save themselves the 
trouble of interpreting it ;— should they seek to pre- 
serve their hearers from the danger attendant on the 
Gospel truths, by omitting to " declare to them all the 
counsel of God." 

And, after all, no such security as is sought can ever 
be found; where there is true coin, there will always 
be counterfeit in circulation ; — there is no truth in the 
world that has not some error very much resembling it: 
there is no virtue but there is a corresponding vice that 
apes its appearance : there is no right principle, in 
Scripture or any where else, that may not by the un- 
learned be 44 wrested to their own destruction." Some 
will do this with the truths of Scripture, in spite of all 
our care ; but there is this difference ; that he who 
studies and leads others to study the whole word of 
God, as his inspired servants have left it, have at least 
good reason to hope, that he and they, may, through 
God's Spirit, attain truth without error ; whereas he 
who confines himself to a part of the Scriptures, and 
that too, a part which (it is plain from what has been 
just said) cannot contain the whole truth of the Gospel, 
and who wilfully disregards the teaching of him whose 
44 Gospel was not after man; neither received of man, 
nor taught, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ," 
such an one is sure to be wrong, and to lead others 
wrong if they are guided by him : and he is fully an- 
swerable both for his own errors and for theirs : he 
makes the experiment at his own peril and on his own 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



1) 



head must be the inevitable consequence of rejecting an 
acknowledged revelation of Jesus Christ. 

And he must also bear the blame even of the errors 
into which others may lead his hearers. If they chance 
to listen to some wild antinomian fanatic, who cites 
perpetually texts from St. Paul, which they have never 
heard differently explained, how can it be expected that 
they should perceive and avoid the error ? They know 
that St. Paul's writings are admitted as canonical and 
inspired ; and they have not been taught that his lan- 
guage will bear any other interpretation than what they 
hear given ; and the silence of their own pastor on the 
subject will have afforded them a presumption that he 
can suggest no other interpretation. And thus the 
wolf will scatter and devour the flock which their shep- 
herd has forsaken. 

It is not, however, on the dangers to be apprehended 
from such a procedure, and the expediency of an oppo- 
site course, that I wish principally to dwell. I would 
rather advert to the principles laid down in the preced- 
ing Essay. Supposing we were in any case quite sure c 
that no fanatical sectaries would arise to take advantage 
of our omission or neglect of St. Paul's writings, 
should we then be justified in thus guarding against 
apprehended evils by keeping out of sight the instruc- 
tions he was commissioned by his Master to deliver I — 
in taking such liberties with the Gospel as to modify 
and fashion it according to our views, and virtually to 
expunge from the record of God's revelations what we 
chance to think unnecessary ? Have we a right, in 
short, even to entertain the question concerning expe- 



c This is the remark, almost verbatim, of an eminent divine (now 
occupying a high station in the Church) in a conversation with the 
author, on the subject of the present Essay. 
5 # 



42 



OX THE IMPORTANCE OF 



diency, instead of considering simply, what is the Truth 
as declared by divine inspiration, and resolving, at all 
events, to follow the truth ? 

§ 3. It is necessary to observe, however, that there 
is a way of evading the force of all that has been hitherto 
urged ; — a plan which certainly may be, and I fear in 
some instances has beers, resorted to, for nullifying in 
effect, without professing to oppose, every argument 
that has been adduced. And it is this : to extol St. 
Paul's writings, and exhort men to the diligent study 
of them, urging at the same time (what no one can 
deny) the importance of interpreting them rightly, and 
insisting on a preliminary course of study, without 
which no one is even to enter on the perusal of them ; 
and then to make this preparation consist in a thorough 
acquaintance with such a list of books, as even those 
professionally devoted to theological pursuits cannot 
be expected to master without the assiduous labor of 
several years. No plan could be devised more effectual 
(were it generally adopted) for making St. Paul a 
sealed book to all but about one in ten thousand of the 
Christian world. For supposing even all the clergy, 
nay, even all candidates for ordination, to have gone 
through this preparatory course of study, the same 
could not be expected of the laity, except a small por- 
tion of the educated classes. And the benefits, what- 
ever they might be, of this preparation, would, after 
all, be confined to those few who had gone through it. 
They indeed, if they were careful not even to open St. 
Paul's epistles till their minds were sufficiently biassed 
by a great mass of human commentaries and disqui- 
sitions, would doubtless be prepared to understand them 
very differently from what they would have done on 
another system : whether better or worse is not now 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



43 



the question : but they would not after all be qualified 
to expound St. Paul to their flocks, nor authorized to 
recommend the perusal of him; for these would be, by 
hypothesis, unfit to enter on the study of his epistles, 
or to comprehend any exposition of them. And if the 
principle were consistently followed up, it would soon 
be remarked that the mass of unlearned Christians are 
not duly prepared for the thorough comprehension 
even of the rest of Scripture ; so that we should 
speedily arrive at the very point so earnestly contend- 
ed for by the Papists against the Reformers ; viz. the 
inexpediency of putting the Scriptures into the hands 
of the people, and the necessity of leaving them to be 
instructed by their pastors in whatever thin org these 
should judge most profitable for them, and level to their 
capacities. . 

Am I then contending, or did the reformers mean to 
contend, that either St. Paul's epistles, or the rest of 
the Scriptures, can be as well understood by a clown 
or a child as by the most learned theologian ? Surely 
not. i The highest abilities, improved by the most 
laborious study, are not more than sufficient for the 
full comprehension of the Sacred Books ; but, if on 
this ground they are not to be opened by any who are 
not so qualified, who will ever become thus qualified ? 
If a number of books be pointed out, without a know- 
ledge of which St. Paul cannot be fully understood, it 
may probably be added with equal truth that these 
cannot be rightly understood without a knowledge of 
St. Paul's epistles. If we are to begin at all, we must 
begin somewhere ; and we must, of course, begin in 
imperfection. Else it might be said, that since veteran 
soldiers are alone well fitted to perform their part, 
therefore none but veterans should be brought into the 
field. The obvious and honest way of proceeding is, 



44 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



not to postpone altogether the study of any part of 
Scripture till we are qualified for the full comprehen- 
sion of it ; which on such a plan we never should be, 
since our minds would be preoccupied with human 
expositions ; but to study both the Scriptures, and the 
best helps towards their explanation we can obtain, 
simultaneously ; at the same time carefully guarding 
ourselves against arrogantly supposing that we do per- 
fectly understand any thing at the first glance. It is 
to this arrogant disposition that the Scriptures are 
dangerous. " A little learning" is the utmost that the 
generality can attain ;— it is what all must attain before 
they can arrive at great learning :— it is the utmost 
acquisition of those who know the most, in comparison 
of w T hat they do not know. " A little learning" is then 
only (and then always) "a dangerous thing," when we 
overrate it, and are not aware of its littleness. 

On the sources of some of the principal errors which 
have sprung from the misinterpretation of St. Paul's 
writings, and the means of guarding even ordinary 
Christians against them, I propose to offer some more 
particular remarks in some of the following Essays. 

For all that has been here urged I should be glad to 
think that there is little occasion. To offer proofs of 
the existence of the error in question, — such proofs as 
might be offered, is what could not be done with pro- 
priety. Some of my readers may, perhaps, regard me 
as combating a shadow, from having themselves never 
met with that depreciation of St. Paul's epistles, which 
I have been deprecating. I have only to hope they 
never may : but I fear that on inquiry they will find 
it but too prevalent ; — that they will even meet with 
some who have gone the length of proposing that no 
part of the Scriptures should be printed for circulation 
among the mass of the people, except the Four Gos- 



STUDYING ST. PAUL'S WRITINGS. 



45 



pels : on the ground that they contain* all things need- 
ful, and that the " things hard to be understood" in 
St. Paul's writings would serve only to perplex and 
mislead them. A man who gives utterance to such an 
opinion, we may be sure, entertains it; but how can 
we be sure that all those who do not give it utterance 
are strangers to it? 

§ 4. There is good reason, however, to believe that 
the chief objection to St. Paul's writings is not from 
the things hard to be understood which they contain, 
but from the things easy to be understood ; — the doc- 
trines so plainly taught by him, that "by grace we are 
saved," — " that the wages of sin is death," — " but 
eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ ;" 
— that our most perfect righteousness can never entitle 
us to claim reward at the hands of God, nor our own 
unaided strength enable us to practise that righteous- 
ness ; but that the meritorious sacrifice of Christ is 
the only foundation of the Christian's hope, and the aid 
of his Spirit the only support of the Christian's virtue. 
These are doctrines humbling to the pride of the human 
heart, and unacceptable to the natural man ; and there- 
fore they are rejected by many, as leading to immoral 
life, and as favoring the notion that we may " continue 
in sin that grace may abound ;" though the moral pre- 
cepts of St. Paul in every page, and his enforcement 
of a conformity to them, as indispensable to the 
Christian's acceptance with God, fly in the face of 
every one who dares thus wrest St. Paul to his own 
destruction. 

But the dislike shown to St. Paul's writings by those 
who on these grounds decry him, is a proof, if he was 
inspired, and they wmnspired, not that he is wrong, but 
that they are. If the Gospel is against a man. he will 



46 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF 



be against the - Gospel. And the more any work is 
depreciated by those who are resolved to believe only 
just what they please, the higher ought its value to rise 
in the estimation of those who are willing to " obey the 
truth." Now there is no one of the sacred writers 
whose expressions have been so tortured, whose autho- 
rity has been so much set at nought by Unitarians, as 
St. Paul's ; which is a plain proof that they find him a 
formidable opponent ; and which should lead those 
who prize the purity of the Gospel, to value his writings 
the more. I am far from insinuating that the great 
truths of Christianity, — the doctrines of the divinity of 
our blessed Lord, — of his atoning sacrifice, — and of 
salvation through him, — rest on St. Paul's authority 
alone ; but a presumption is afforded by the very hos- 
tility shown towards him by the opponents of those 
doctrines, that he is particularly full and clear in en- 
forcing them, and that he adds great confirmation to 
the testimony in their favor of the other sacred writers. 

It is perhaps to be wished, accordingly, that a book 
which appeared not long since, entitled, " Not Paul 
but Jesus," had been written with more ability, and 
had attracted more notice; in order that it might have 
directed men's attention more strongly, not only to 
St. Paul's claims to a divine commission, but also to 
his importance as a bulwark of the Christian faith ; it 
being very evident that Christianity was what the author 
really meant to assail; neither he nor any of his dis- 
ciples believing any more in Jesus than they did in 
Paul. And I wish also that the writer had set forth 
more strongly the alleged discrepancy between St. 
Paul's doctrines and those of the disciples of Jesus ; 
which certainly might have been done ; since (as was 
above remarked,) though there is nothing contrary in 
the one to the other, there is much that is different, 



STUDYING ST. PAUl/s WRITINGS. 



47 



as the nature of the case required ; the same doctrines 
which were but obscurely hinted at by the one, being 
fully developed, (the fit time being come,) and earnestly 
dwelt on, by the other; the doctrines which Jesus 
preached being suited to the period when the kingdom 
of heaven was only at hand, and preparatory to the 
fuller manifestation of Gospel truth which ha revealed 
to St. Paul when his kingdom was established. The 
attention which a powerful opponent would thus have 
called to a most important subject, too often neglected 
by the advocates of our faith, and the light which would 
in consequence have been thrown on the subject, would 
have been no small benefit to the cause of truth. Op- 
position excites discussion ; and discussion leads to 
inquiries which may end in not only bringing truth to 
light, but impressing it forcibly on minds which had 
been sunk in heedless apathy. Next after an able, and 
full, and interesting vindication and explanation of St. 
Paul's writings, the sort of work whose appearance 
ought most to be hailed, is a plausible attack on them ; 
which, indeed, is the most likely to call forth the other. 
His labors can never be effectually frustrated except by 
being kept out of sight : whatever brings him into no- 
tice, will ultimately bring him into triumph ; all the 
malignity and the sophistry of his adversaries will not 
only assail him in vain, but will lead in the end to the 
perfecting of his glory, and the extension of his Gospel. 
They may scourge him uncondemned, like the Roman 
magistrates at Philippi ; — they may inflict on him the 
lashes of calumnious censure, — but they cannot silence 
him : they may thrust him into a dungeon, and fetter 
him with their strained interpretations ; but his voice 
will be raised, even at the midnight of unchristian dark- 
ness, and will be heard effectually ; his prison doors will 
burst open as with an earthquake, and the fetters will 



48 



ON THE IMPORTANCE, ETC. 



fall from his hands ; and even strangers to Gospel 
truth will fall down at the feet of him, even Paul, to 
make that momentous inquiiy, " What shall I do to be 
saved ?" 

May God " grant (as the prayer of our Church ex- 
presses it) that as the light of the Gospel has been 
caused tq shine through the preaching of that blessed 
apostle, we, having his wonderful conversion in re- 
membrance, may show forth our thankfulness for the 
same, by following the holy doctrines which he taught 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." 



ESSAY III. 

ON ELECTION. 



We learn, from the most undeniable authority, that 
the writings of the blessed apostle St. Paul, contain 
some things hard to be understood, which they that are 
unlearned and unstable wrest, as well as the other 
Scriptures, to their own destruction. Now as it is evi- 
dently of the highest importance to guard against such 
a danger, so it is not less evident (as has been formerly 
remarked) that this is not to be done by keeping in the 
back-ground St. Paul's Epistles, and withdrawing, or 
encouraging Christians to withhold attention from them; 
not only because it is neither wise nor pious to neglect 
the instructions of one who " received not his doctrine 
from men, but by inspiration of Jesus Christ ;" but 
also, because the very errors in question will be the 
more easily propagated by such as appeal to St. Paul 
in support of them, in proportion as they are allowed 
to make this appeal uncontradicted ; if,* while we admit 
the divine authority of these works, we leave them 
chiefly in the hands of extravagant fanatics, to put their 
own interpretation on passages, of which their hearers 
shall have been taught no better explanation. The 
Christian instruction, in short,- to be derived from a 
right interpretation of St. Paul's works, and the mis- 
chief resulting from a misinterpretation of them, furnish, 
each, a most powerful reason for the attentive study of 
them. 

6 



50 



ON ELECTION. 



I propose, accordingly, to suggest some principles 
which should be kept in mind by one who would right- 
ly understand this portion of Scripture ; principles, the 
neglect of which has given occasion to most of the 
errors into which " the unlearned and unstable" have 
fallen. 

§ 1. It is evident, that, in order to understand any 
author thoroughly, it is highly desirable, if not abso- 
lutely necessary, to be acquainted, in some degree, 
with his character ; the circumstances in which he was 
placed ; and his habitual modes of thought thence re- 
sulting. Nor will this be sufficient, unless we have 
something of the same knowledge respecting the per- 
sons to whom he wrote ; and the more remote any 
work is, in point of time or of place, from ourselves, 
the more diligent attention will be required in the 
reader, not only to ascertain these circumstances, but 
to keep them steadily and constantly in view. Many 
things have an obvious reference to particular persons, 
times, and places, and cannot be at all understood with- 
out taking these into consideration. When Moses, for 
instance, or the other sacred writers, speak of places 
" beyond Jordan," or " on this side of Jordan," every 
one perceives the necessity of considering the local 
situation of the author ; but many other circumstances, 
not at all less essential to the right understanding of 
what is said, are apt to escape the notice of one whose 
attention is not steadily directed to the application of 
the principle laid down. 

Now no one is ignorant that St. Paul was not only a 
Jew, but one strictly educated in the principles of the 
most learned and most rigid sect among the Jews ; but 
this circumstance is not always practically kept in mind 
so much as it ought to be. No one who reads his works 



ON ELECTION. 



51 



ought to lose sight of it for a moment, but constantly to 
bear in mind what habits of thought and modes of ex- 
pression would be natural to a Jew, and to a Jew of 
that description. 

Inspired, indeed, he was, with the knowledge of the 
Gospel ; Jewish errors and prejudices were corrected 
in him by the Spirit of Truth ; but we have no reason 
to suppose that this inspiration would go any further 
than was requisite to qualify him for his ministry ; that 
any thing besides errors and prejudices would be altered. 

If any one should imagine, that because one and the 
same Spirit taught one and the same Gospel to all its 
appointed ministers, therefore every distinction between 
them was done away, all traces of individual character 
necessarily swallowed up in one common revelation, an 
attentive study of the sacred writers will soon convince 
him of his mistake. Even of the apostles, who were 
all of them Jews, no two write precisely alike ; the 
variations of individual character are perceptible, even 
when in national character they all agree. 

St. Paul's writings, then, must be studied as those of 
a man, not only acquainted with the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, but familiar with them from a child ; 
full of an early-implanted and habitual reverence for 
them ; and disposed to refer to them for argument and 
for illustration, on every possible occasion. He was 
likely, in short, to write as a learned and zealous Jew, 
in every point except those in which the teaching of the 
Spirit led him to correct his former notions. And this 
divine monitor, it should be recollected, was so far from 
instructing Christian ministers to keep the Old Testa- 
ment out of sight, that there is no point more strenu- 
ously and uniformly insisted on, than the connexion of 
the old and new dispensations. Christianity is invari- 
ably represented, not as a new religion, but as the 



52 



ON ELECTION. 



completion of a scheme long before begun ; it was 
plainly meant to be engrafted, not on natural religion, 
but on Judaism, If this circumstance had been duly 
attended to, many of the heresies which have corrupted 
our religion would have been avoided. 

But what were the character and situation of St. 
Paul's hearers ? He was, indeed, more especially the 
apostle of the Gentiles ; but he appears, wherever he 
went, to have addressed himself first to his own coun- 
trymen ; his natural feelings of warm attachment and 
partiality towards them, being by no means forbidden 
by his heavenly Guide, who on the contrary, designed 
that the Jews should have this precedence. The promi- 
ses and threats of the Gospel were to be declared " to 
the Jew first, and also to the Greek." " It was neces- 
sary" says St. Paul, " that the word of God should first 
have been spoken to you ; but seeing ye put it from you, 
lo ! we turn to the Gentiles." It is probable, indeed, 
that the number of St. Paul's converts among his own 
brethren were, in most places, but a small proportion ; 
though in some of the Churches it appears, from several 
circumstances, that their amount was not inconsidera- 
ble ; and in every Church, it is probable that Jews and 
devout Greeks (i. e. such as had before renounced 
idolatry and acknowledged the divine origin of the Jew- 
ish religion) were to be found among the members, and 
among the earliest members. In those places, however, 
in which the great majority of the Christian brethren 
were converted Gentiles, it might have been supposed 
that the Old Testament would have been but little studied 
or thought of; so far, however, was this from being the 
case — so far was St. Paul from allowing the Jewish 
Scriptures, those Holy Scriptures which he represents 
as " able to make us wise unto salvation," to be depre- 
ciated, or the Christian revelation to be regarded as any 



OX ELECTION. 



53 



other than a completion of the Mosaic, that he seems to 
have expected in all his converts, an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the Old Testament ; and to have earnestly, 
and not unsuccessfully, inculcated the necessity of inter- 
preting the one scheme by the other, as two parts of 
the same great whole, and of considering " whatsoever 
things were written aforetime," as " written for their 
learning." On the Corinthian Church, for instance, he 
impresses this principle as of high importance ; and 
though but a small proportion of them probably were 
Jews, he evidently implies that they were not on that 
account the less interested in all the concerns of the 
Jewish Church, whose successor was the Christian : — 
" I would not have you ignorant," says he, " how that 
all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed 
through the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in 

the cloud and in the sea But with many 

of them God was not well pleased ; for they were over- 
thrown in the wilderness;" And after touching on 
several points in the history of the Church of Israel, he 
assures the Corinthians that " these things happened 
unto them for en samples ; and they are written for our 
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are 
come," (i. e. who live under the last dispensation of 
God ; which is not, like the Mosaic, to be succeeded by 
any other, but will last to the end of the world.) 

The passage just mentioned is only one out of many 
in which the apostle adverts to the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, as of high importance to be studied by 
Christians. And the frequent allusions he makes to 
them as familiar to his hearers, and of acknowledged 
value in their eyes, convey his judgment on the subject 
far more strongly than so many direct admonitions on 
the subject ; they indicate what was the early, the 
habitual, and the universal mode of instruction employed 
6* 



54 



ON ELECTION. 



by himself and all the Christian teachers. No Chris- 
tian, therefore, who would copy the pattern of St. Paul, 
will leave the Old Testament out of sight ; but will 
learn from him that the former dispensation must be 
carefully attended to by one who would rightly un- 
derstand the Gospel. And St. Paul's experience may 
also serve to guard us against another error, in some 
respects the opposite of that just alluded to ; the con- 
founding together of the two systems in one confused 
medley, and blending the law, which had " a shadow of 
good things to come," with the Gospel, which is the 
fulfilment of it : an error not uncommon with those 
who unthinkingly study the Bible as one book, without 
taking pains to discriminate the several parts of the 
great scheme of Providence it relates to. The two 
dispensations correspond in almost every point, but 
coincide in very few. Like the flower and the fruit of 
any plant, the one is a preparation for the other ; and 
each of its parts bears some relation to the other, though 
they have but a very faint resemblance ; the parts which 
are the most prominent and striking in each, respective- 
ly, being least so in the other ; so that if any one were 
to give a representation in which the parts of the blos- 
som and of the perfect fruit were confusedly combined 
and intermingled, it would be an unnatural anomaly, 
very unlike either the one or the other. The example 
of St. Paul furnishes, as I have said, a safeguard against 
this error ; he all along represents the law as connected 
with the Gospel, as the shadow with the substance ; — 
as " our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ ;" and 
the condition of the Israelites as analogous to that of 
Christians, but in many points dissimilar. 

In several instances, indeed, this correspondence and 
this difference are pretty generally perceived and ac- 
knowledged. That the paschal lamb, for instance, and 



ON ELECTION". 



55 



the other Jewish sacrifices, were typical of the atoning 
sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, — the sin offerings 
and other outward rites of purification having the same 
relation to ceremonial offences and external legal justi- 
fication from them, that the offering of our Lord has to 
the wiping away of moral guilt and the inward sancti- 
fication of the heart, — this is a point on which few 
professed Christians are ignorant or doubtful ; the cor- 
respondence, and at the same time, dissimilarity having 
been explicitly stated, in the Epistle to the Hebrews : 
" if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an 
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purify- 
ing of the flesh ; how much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered him- 
self without spot to God, purge your conscience from 
dead works to serve the living God That the pro- 
mised land of Canaan, again, the place of rest to which 
Jesus (Joshua) conducted the Israelites, is a type of 
the heavenly rest to which out Jesus is ready to lead 
his followers, is understood and admitted by most Chris- 
tians. That the sanction of extraordinary temporal 
blessings and judgments, both national and individual, 
under which the Jews lived, is withdrawn, and succeed- 
ed by " the bringing in of a better hope" than that of 
the law, is a truth not so well understood by many 
Christians ; there is a leaning in the minds of not a few, 
to an expectation of that inevitable vengeance in this 
world on the wicked, which was denounced under the 
Mosaic law ; and of that temporal prosperity, as the 
reward of obedience, which forms no part of the pro- 
mises of a religion whose Founder was crucified, and 
whose apostles were, " if in this life only they had 
hope in Christ, of all men most miserable." 

The better-instructed part, however, of the Christian 
world, perceive the distinction in this point between the 



56 



ON ELECTION. 



old and the new dispensations ; and understand that the 
promises and threats of the one are applicable, figura- 
tively only, to the other ; the rewards and punishments 
of a future life being substituted for those of the present. 
There are many other points, however, which are 
frequently overlooked, in which the correspondence 
between the two systems is such as to make the former 
a most useful interpreter of the latter ; and when we 
consider what a familiar acquaintance with the law, and 
with the history of the Jews, St. Paul had himself, and 
expected in his hearers, we cannot doubt that this in- 
terpreter must be perpetually consulted, if we would 
rightly understand his epistles. 

§2. One only of, the cases to which this principle 
may be applied will be noticed in the present Essay. 
A question, which is one of the most momentous ever 
agitated among Christians, may be, I think, completely 
set at rest by such a mode of consulting the Old Testa- 
ment as has been recommended. The question I allude 
to, is that relating to such as are called by St. Paul, and 
the other apostles, the " Elect" or " chosen people" of 
God, " called out of the world to be Saints," and inhe- 
ritors of eternal life, by God's favor (or grace) through 
Christ. It is well known that differences of no trifling 
moment exist among Christians in their opinions on this 
subject. Some maintain, as is well known, that there are 
among the members of Christ's visible Church, two 
classes of persons, the Elect and the Non-elect, who are 
both fixed upon arbitrarily by God's eternal, immutable, 
unconditional decree ; — that those who are the Elect, the 
"called to be Saints," are regenerate, and made sons of 
God by his Spirit, — are justified in his sight through 
the merits of Christ, — are sanctified, and led in the 
paths of Christian holiness by the influence of divine 



ON ELECTION. 



57 



grace, and are infallibly conducted to eternal happiness 
in heaven: and that others, on the contrary, i. e. all 
others, though baptized into the faith, and though they 
have heard the offers of the Gospel, are nevertheless 
non-elect, passed by, and rejected by God ; and, conse- 
quently, are no less certainly doomed to everlasting 
perdition. 

This account of the Gospel scheme is utterly dis- 
pleasing to others ; who maintain that the election is 
not arbitrary, but has respect to men's foreseen faith 
and obedience ; a i« e. that God decrees to elect such as 
he foresees will be obedient to his commands, and 
passes by those whose disobedience he foresees. 

No candid and well-informed student of Scripture 
can, I think, deny, that arguments in support of each 
of these opposite doctrines have been alleged, which 
have at least some degree of plausibility at first sight. 

In support of the latter system, are urged the decla- 
rations in Scripture that 44 Christ died for all," that 



a "Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God," is an expression 
sometimes appealed to in support of this view ; but I think not correctly. 
The apostle's design in employing it will be found, on attentive inquiry, 
to be this : it was a stumbling-block to the Jews, even to those who 
acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, that the Gentiles should be ad- 
mitted to equal privileges with themselves : the Israelites, they pleaded, 
had been declared to be God's peculiar and highly-favored people; 
was it to be supposed that He would alter his plans'? No, said St. Paul ; 
there is no change in his plans ; but He all along designed (and he 
cites the prophets to prove his assertion) to admit, at a future time, 
such of the Gentiles as would hear his call, into the number of his 
people : this, indeed, was formerly a secret, not understood by our fore- 
fathers, and now for the first time "made manifest" to men ; but the 
design always existed "that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs;" the 
mystery (i. e. the doctrine first hidden, and afterwards revealed, which 
is the usual sense of the word mystery) of their election, was, of course, 
always known to God himself, though but lately revealed to us : they 
are "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God." 



58 



ON ELECTION. 



" He willeth all men to be saved," &c, as well as the 
general tenor of the Gospel offers of salvation, which 
seem to leave all that heard them at full liberty to 
accept or reject them. On the other hand, the expres- 
sions of St. Paul especially, are urged, who speaks of 
men as " clay in the hands of the potter," who has 
power to make 44 of the same lump vessels to honor 
and to dishonor" (£. e. to humbler and meaner uses ;) 
and who speaks of the call to salvation as originating 
entirely in the free bounty of God, without reference 
to good works of ours either previojus or subsequent : 
God hath chosen us, says Calvin, 44 non quia eramus, 
sed ut essemus sancti ;" — not because we were, nor 
because he foresaw that we should be, but (according 
to St. Paul) in order that " we might be holy in all 
good works." 

It would be tedious and unnecessary to cite all the 
texts that have been appealed to by both parties on 
this question, and the arguments grounded on them. 
Suffice it to observe, that they are generally opposed 
by other arguments and other texts ; and that each 
party has generally succeeded better in this, than in 
refuting and explaining those adduced by their oppo- 
nents. In particular, the explanations given by the 
opponents of the Calvinistic scheme, of the passages 
urged in favor of it, appear to some even of themselves, 
(I will not say unsatisfactory, but) so far incapable of 
being satisfactorily laid before the mass of ordinary 
Christians, that they are disposed* to apprehend danger 
from the study of St. Paul's epistles, and rather to draw 
the attention of their flocks to other parts of Scripture 
in preference. 

I cannot but think that an attentive examination of 
the Old Testament will go far towards furnishing a key 
to the true meaning of St. Paul's and the other apostles' 



ON ELECTION. 



59 



epistles ; and will furnish an answer, not only satis- 
factory, but capable of being made clear to the unlearn- 
ed, of the three great questions on which the whole 
discussion turns ; viz. 1st. Whether the Divine election 
is arbitrary, or has respect to men's foreseen conduct ; 
2dly. Who are to be regarded as the Elect ; and, 3dly. 
In what does that election consist ? 

In treating of these questions, it should be premised 
that I design, in the first instance, to look exclusively 
to the testimony of Scripture ; leaving wholly, at pre- 
sent, the abstract questions respecting fate and free-will, 
which belong more properly to the province of natural- 
religion, or of metaphysics ; and also that my examina- 
tion of Scripture will be confined to the light thrown 
generally on the Gospel scheme by the books of Moses. 
The Christian Church being confessedly the successor 
of the Jewish, and the Christian dispensation, of the 
Mosaic, nothing can be more reasonable than to aid 
our judgment respecting the one by contemplating the 
other. 

§ 3. Now, with respect to the first question before us, 
were the Israelites who were evidently God's Called, 
Elect, or Chosen, Holy and Peculiar people, were they, 
I say, thus chosen, arbitrarily, or not? Moses clearly 
and repeatedly states that this selection of them was 
arbitrary. He often reminds them that they were not 
thus singled out from the midst of other nations for their 
own righteousness, since they were a stiff-necked peo- 
ple, but of God's free goodness, " who will have mercy 
on whom he will have mercy, and will be gracious to 
whom he will be gracious;" and " because he had a 
favor unto them." And with respect to their fathers, 
though Abraham indeed was tried, and found faithful 
sand obedient, there was certainly an arbitrary choice 



60 



ON ELECTION. 



made of Jacob in preference to his elder brother Esau ; 
which, indeed, is one of the cases referred to by St. 
Paul ; who remarks, that " while the children were yet 
in the womb, and had done neither good nor evil," it 
was declared by the oracle of God, that " the elder 
should serve the younger." Nor again (it should be 
observed) could that selection of the children of Jacob 
have been decreed with reference to their foreseen faith 
and obedience ; since we know how eminently deficient 
they were in those qualifications ; stubborn and rebel- 
lious, — continually falling into idolatry and other sins, — 
forgetting what great things God had wrought for them, 
and undervaluing their high privilege. 

The Divine election then under the old dispensation 
was, it is manifest, entirely arbitrary ; but, in the second 
place, who were the objects of it 1 Evidently the whole 
nation without any exception. They were all brought 
out of Egypt by a mighty hand, and miraculously de- 
livered from their enemies, and received the divine 
commandments through Moses, who uniformly address- 
ed them, not some, but all, — as God's chosen, holy, and 
peculiar people. 

But, lastly, what was the nature of this election of the 
Israelites ? To what were they thus chosen by their 
Almighty Ruler ? Were they elected absolutely and 
infallibly to enter the promised land, and to triumph 
over their enemies, and to live in security, wealth, and 
enjoyment I Manifestly not. They were elected to 
the privilege of having these blessings placed within 
their reach, on the condition of their obeying the law 
which God had given them ; but those who refused this 
obedience, were not only excluded from the .promised 
blessings, but were the objects of God's especial judg- 
ments, far beyond those inflicted on the Heathen nations, 
who had not been so highly favored, whose idolatry 



ON ELECTION. 



61 



and wickedness was, generally speaking, far less uni- 
formly and severely visited: "With a mighty hand, 
and with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out 
will I rule over you," was the threat denounced against 
the disobedient Israelites ; of the fulfilment of which, 
numerous instances are recorded in Scripture ; and one 
most striking one is before our eyes ; the forlorn and 
ruined condition as a nation, at the present day, of 
those who rejected the long-promised Messiah, and 
invoked his blood npon " themselves and on their 
children." Still, however, whether obedient or rebel- 
lious, they were all of them the peculiar and elect 
people of God ; because on all of them, on every in- 
dividual without exception of that people, the privileges 
were bestow r ed ; and to every one of them the offer 
made, of God's especial blessing and protection, on 
condition of their conforming to the commands he had 
condescended to give them. But whether they would 
thus conform or not, was all along studiously repre- 
sented by Moses as a matter entirely dependent on 
themselves ; " Behold," says he, " I have set before 
you this day good and evil, blessing and cursing ; now, 
therefore, choose blessing." The election then of the 
Jews was arbitrary indeed ; but it was an election not 
to blessing absolutely, but to a privilege and advantage ; 
to the offer and opportunity of obtaining a peculiar 
blessing, such as was not placed within the reach of 
other nations. Whether they would accept the offer, 
or draw down God's curse on them by their disobe- 
dience, rested with themselves : and that they were left 
at liberty to pursue this latter course is plain, from this 
most remarkable circumstance ; that of all the adult 
individuals of them who came out of Egypt, and heard 
the law delivered from Mount Sinai, two only reached 
7 



62 



ON ELECTION. 



the promised land. Of the rest, the whole generation 
were cut off in the wilderness for their disobedience. 

Now to apply these observations to the Gospel dis- 
pensation : it is plain, as has been said, that the Chris- 
tian Church stands in the place of the Jewish ; — that it 
succeeds it in the divine favor, and enjoys, not the 
same indeed, but corresponding benefits and privileges; 
it is reasonable, therefore, to suppose, that since both 
dispensations are parts of the one plan of the one 
heavenly Author, those benefits and privileges should 
be bestowed according to a similar system in each. 
The Christian religion, however, is not, like the Jewish, 
confined to one nation, nor the Christian worship to 
one place, like the temple at Jerusalem : the Church of 
Christ is open to all to whom the Gospel has been 
announced, and comprehends all who acknowledge it : 
the invitations of that Gospel are general ; all members 
of that Church are " called and elected" by God, and 
are as truly his people, and under his especial govern- 
ment, as the Israelites ever were. And though they do 
not consist of any one nation in particular, they are 
arbitrarily selected and called to this privilege, out of 
the rest of the world, according to God's unsearchable 
will, for reasons known to Him alone, no less than the 
Israelites were of old. Some nations, we know r , had 
the Gospel preached to them long before others : the 
apostles were directed by the Holy Ghost what countries 
they should first visit and enlighten by their ministry ; 
and many there are, that remain in ignorance of Chris- 
tianity to this day. We can give no account of this 
distinction, but that such is God's pleasure. No reason 
can be assigned why Ave ourselves, for instance, in this 
country, should have received the light of the Gospel, 
while many other regions of the earth remain in the 
darkness of idolatry. The calling and selection of us 



ON ELECTION. 



63 



and of other Christians to the knowledge of the true 
God, seems as arbitrary as that of the Israelites. And 
as this promise belonged not to some only, but to every 
one of that nation, whether he chose to avail himself 
of it, or to convert it into a heavy curse by his neglect 
of it ; so we may conclude that every Christian is called 
and elected to the Christian privileges, just as every 
Jew was to his ; but that it rests with us to use or abuse 
the advantage. The Jews were not chosen to enjoy 
God's favor and to enter into the promised land, abso- 
lutely ; but to have the offer of that favor, and the pro- 
mise of that land, on condition of their obedience ; and 
as many as were rebellious, perished in the wilderness. 
So also, we may conclude, no Christian is elected to 
eternal salvation, absolutely ; but only to the know- 
ledge of the Gospel, — to the privileges of the Christian 
Church, — to the offer of God's holy Spirit — and to the 
promise of final salvation, on condition of being a faith- 
ful follower of Christ. 

Such, I say. we might antecedently conjecture, must 
be the right interpretation of St. Paul's language, con- 
sidering how constantly and how clearly all the cir- 
cumstances of the old dispensation must be supposed 
to have been before his mind. But in the instance 
now before us we are not left to conjecture : he himself 
draws the parallel for us, and strongly directs our atten- 
tion to it; reminding us, in the most distinct manner, 
of the principles by which we are to be guided in our 
examination of the Gospel scheme. He not only always 
addresses his converts (the very persons whom he all 
along congratulates as the Called, and Favored, and 
Elect of God) as if it depended on themselves to avail 
themselves, or not, of these offers, — to 44 lay hold on eter- 
nal life," or to forfeit it by their own neglect, but he 
also warns them, from the very example of the Israelites, 



64 



OX ELECTION". 



against the error of misunderstanding what it was to 
which they were elected. For some of them, it is pro- 
bable, having been always addressed as the " Chosen" 
of God, were disposed to indulge in careless security, 
relying on their baptismal privileges, and confident of 
final salvation independent of such exertions as can 
alone justify that confidence ; even as the Jews " thought 
to say within themselves, we are Abraham's children." 
The apostle, accordingly, himself expressly points out 
the correspondence between their case and that of the 
children of Israel : exhorting them to take warning 
from the Jbackslidings and punishment of their pre- 
decessors, God's favored people of old. He observes 
to the Corinthians, first, that it was not a part only, 
but the whole of the Israelites who were thus favored: 
' ; all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed 
through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in 
the cloud and in the sea." But, notwithstanding this, 
(as he proceeds to point out) " with many of them God 
was not well-pleased , for they were overthrown in 
the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, 
to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they 
also lusted ; neither be ye idolaters, as were some of 
them ; . . . . neither let us commit fornication, as some 
of them committed, and fell in one day three-and-twenty 
thousand ; neither let us tempt Christ, as some of 
them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents ; 
neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, 
and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these 
things," he adds, " happened unto them for ensamples : 
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom 
the ends of the world are come ;" and' thence he deduces 
the great general conclusion, 44 Wherefore, let him that 
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Let not 
the Christian, that is, though he is one of God's pecu- 



OX ELECTION". 



65 



liar and favored people, as the Israelites were of old. 
flatter himself that he is chosen, any more than they 
were, to the absolute attainment of a final blessing, but 
only to the offer of it, together with the privileges and 
advantages which will enable him to attain it : let him 
not doubt that the option is left to him, as it was to 
them, of securing or forfeiting his ultimate reward : 
let him learn from the example of the Israelites, that 
neither his promised inheritance is infallibly secured to 
him without obedience, nor he himself absolutely se- 
cured in the requisite obedience, without any watchful- 
ness on his part ; since the far greater portion of those 
whom God brought out of Egypt, never reached the 
promised land. 

It is worth remembering, that the system just de- 
scribed is the same with that pursued in the ordinary 
course of God's providence also : a man's being born, 
for instance, heir to great wealth, — to high rank, — or 
a kingdom, — of a healthy constitution, — or of superior 
abilities, does not depend on himself; but it does de- 
pend on himself whether such advantages as these shall 
prove a blessing to him, by his making a right use of 
them, or shall aggravate his condemnation, through his 
ill employment or neglect of them. 

He then who diligently looks to the analogy both of 
God's ordinary dealings with man, and of his former 
dispensation to the Jews, and who carefully interprets 
the New Testament by the Old, will be enabled, I think, 
to clear up the greater part of a difficulty which has 
furnished matter of dispute among Christians for many 
centuries. By contemplating the correspondence be- 
tween the Jewish and the Gospel schemes, he will 
clearly perceive that there is no such distinction among 
Christians as the " Called" and the uncalled, — the 
" Elect" and the non-elect ;— that the Gospel itself is a 
7* 



66 



ON ELECTION. 



call to all who have heard it; and that those who? 
instead of obeying it, wait for any further call, are de- 
luded by the father of lies, who is watching for their 
destruction. — He will perceive, that though all born in 
a Christian country and initiated into Christ's Church, 
are arbitrarily elected to this invaluable privilege ; their 
salvation is not arbitrary, but will depend on the use 
they make of their privileges ; those, namely, to which 
all Christians are called,— the knowledge of the Gospel, 
the aids of the Holy Spirit, and the offer of eternal 
life ; privileges of which all are exhorted, but none 
compelled, to make a right use ; and which will prove 
ultimately either a blessing or a curse to each, accord- 
ing to the use he makes of them. 

When it is contended, however, that the term " Elect,' 9 
or that any other Scriptural expression, is to be inter- 
preted in this or in that sense, this must be understood, 
in reference to the particular passages in question, or 
to the generality ; — not, as implying that no other sense 
is any where admissible, and that if the explanation 
given be correct, it must hold good in every passage 
where the word occurs. For instance, when the apos- 
tles address their converts universally as the " Elect," 
or "Chosen" of God, (even as the whole nation of 
Israel were of old his Chosen) this must be understood 
of their being chosen out of the whole mass of the 
Gentiles, to certain peculiar privileges, unknown to 
successive generations of their ancestors, but of which 
they were called and invited to avail themselves. But 
our Lord applies the word differently in the parables 
of the laborers of the vineyard, and of the marriage- 
feast. The wedding, he tells us, was furnished with 
guests by an indiscriminate collection of all that could 
be found in the highways ; but the guest who refused 
to put on the wedding garment, was " cast into the 



ON ELECTION. 



67 



outer darkness " for many," he adds, " are called, but 
few chosen;" many, that is, are " called" to the enjoy- 
ment of high privileges, but few make such a use of the 
advantage as to be finally " chosen ;" not, in this in- 
stance, (as the word is more commonly employed) 
chosen to a privilege merely, but to ultimate reward ; 
— chosen, as having rightly availed themselves of that 
privilege ; — selected from among the faithless and diso- 
bedient to " enter into the joy of their Lord." Not 
that in this case the word " chosen" is used in different 
meanings, but that its application is different ; both 
parties are, in the same sense, " chosen ;" but the things 
to which they are chosen are different ; and there is a 
corresponding difference in the principle on which the 
choice is conducted. 

There is, indeed, no more fruitful source of error, in 
this, and in many other points, than the practice of 
interpreting Scripture on the principles of a scientific 
system, and endeavoring to make out, as in mathe- 
matics, a complete technical vocabulary, with precise 
definitions of all the terms employed, such as may be 
applied in every case where they occur. Nothing, 
manifestly, was further from the design of the sacred 
writers, than to frame any such system : their writings, 
were popular, not scientific ; they expressed their mean- 
ing, on each occasion, in the terms which, on each 
occasion, suggested themselves as best fitted to convey 
it ; and he who would interpret rightly each of these 
terms, must interpret it in each passage according 
to the context of the place where it is found. And 
wherever the term " Elect" relates (as it does in most 
instances) to an arbitrary, irrespective, unconditional, 
decree, it will, I think, be found invariably to bear the 
sense in which I have explained it. 

That a doctrine, therefore, so opposite to the one 



68 



ON ELECTION. 



here laid down, should have been deduced from the 
Scriptures by many ingenious and diligent students of 
them, one can hardly avoid attributing, in some degree, 
to their entering an the study with a strong antece- 
dent bias in favor of the conclusion they draw ; in 
consequence of their regarding it as a truth abstractedly 
demonstrable by reason. But for such a bias, we should 
hardly find so many passages of Scripture interpreted 
so hastily, and often so much wrested from their obvious 
sense, to make them afford confirmation of the favorite 
hypothesis. For instance, the Scripture similitude of 
the potter and the clay is often triumphantly appealed 
to, as a proof that God has from eternity decreed, and, 
what is more, has revealed to us that he has so decreed, 
the salvation or perdition of each individual, without 
any other reason assigned than that such is his will and 
pleasure : we are in his hands, say these -predestinari- 
ans, " as clay in the potter's, who hath power, of the 
same lump, to make one vessel to honor and another to 
dishonor;" not observing in their hasty eagerness to 
seize on every apparent confirmation of their system, 
that this similitude, as far as it goes, rather makes 
against them ; since the -potter never makes any vessel 
for the express purpose of being broken and destroyed. 
This comparison accordingly agrees much better with 
the view here taken : the potter, according to his own 
arbitrary choice, makes " of the same lump one vessel 
to honor and another to dishonor ;" i. e. some to nobler, 
and some to meaner uses ; but all, for some use ; none, 
with design that it should be cast away, and dashed to 
pieces : even so the Almighty, of his own arbitrary 
choice, causes some to be born to wealth or rank, 
others to poverty and obscurity ; — some in a Heathen, 
and others in a Christian country ; the advantages and 
privileges bestowed on each are various, and, as far as 



ON ELECTION. 



69 



we can see, arbitrarily dispensed ; the final rewards or 
punishments depend, as we are plainly taught, on the 
use or abuse of those advantages. Wealth and power, 
and Christian knowledge, and all other advantages, may 
be made either a blessing or a curse to the possessor ; 
since they plainly answer to the talents and to the 
pounds in our Lord's parables : why one servant had 
five talents entrusted to him, another two, and another 
one,— in what consisted " their several abilities," — we 
are not told ; though we may be sure the distribution 
was not made on the ground of the foreseen use they 
would make of the talents ; else, he who received the 
one, and kept it laid up in a napkin, would not have 
been entrusted with any. But w^e are plainly told on 
what principles all these servants were ultimately judged 
by their Master ; those who had received the five, and 
the two talents, were rewarded, not from arbitrary 
choice, but because they had rightly employed the de- 
posite; and the unprofitable servant was punished, not 
because he had received only one, but because he had 
let it lie idle. 

The " hardening of Pharaoh's heart," again, which is 
mentioned in Scripture, is often triumphantly appealed to, 
as a recorded instance in which (according to the hasty 
interpretation sometimes adopted) God made the King 
of Egypt, what we call hard-hearted ; that is, cruel and 
remorseless ; on purpose to display his Almighty power 
upon him : whereas a very moderate attention to the 
context would plainly evince that this (whether true or 
false) is very far from being revealed in Scripture ; but 
that, on the contrary, the hardening (or as some more 
properly translate, the strengthening) of Pharaoh's 
heart, must mean a judicial blindness of intellect as to 

a The u heart" is continually employed by the sacred writers to 
denote the understanding- ; as when our Lord is said to Cf upbraid the 



70 



ON ELECTION. 



his own interest, and a vain and absurd self-confidence ; 
which induced him to hold out against Omnipotence. 
For it is remarkable that the cruelties he had practised, 
had all of them taken place before any mention is made 
of God's hardening his heart. The tyrant who had 
subjected to grievous slavery and attempted to extirpate 
the Israelites, could hardly, after that, be made cruel ; 
but the most unrelenting miscreant would have let them 
go, through mere selfish prudence, had he not been 
superiiaturally infatuated, when he saw that they were 
" a snare unto him," and that "Egypt was destroyed" 
through the mighty plagues inflicted on their accounts 
To sum up, then, in a single sentence, the error 
which appears to me to have originated from a neglect 
of the lesson which the Old Testament may supply : 
the doctrine that final salvation is represented in Scrip- 
ture as resting solely on the arbitrary appointment of 
God, is deduced from two premises; 1st, that Election 



disciples for their unbelief and hardness of hearty &c. They never, 
I believe, employ aKhjpoKapSia, to signify cruelty. The same appears 
to have been anciently the usage of our own language also ; of which 
we retain a remnant, in the expression of " learning any thing by 
heart.' 1 

b I have been informed that some of the hearers of the discourse of 
which this Essay contains the substance, understood the foregoing 
argument to be merely a repetition of Mr. Sumner's, in his valuable 
work on " Apostolical Preaching. 55 Such a misapprehension is, I trust, 
less likely to take place in the closet ; but to guard against the possi- 
bility of it, it may be worth while here to remark, that though I coincide 
with Mr. S. in his conclusion, the arguments by which we, respectively, 
arrive at it, are different. The distinction which he dwells on, is that 
between national and individual election ; that on which I have in- 
sisted, is, the distinction between election to certain privileges, and to 
final reward ; he, in short, considers principally the parties chosen ; 
whether bodies of men, or particular persons : I, the things to which 
they are chosen ; whether to a blessing absolutely, or to the offer of 
one, conditionally. 



ON ELECTION. 



71 



infallibly implies salvation ; and, 2dly, that Election is 
entirely arbitrary ; whence it follows, certainly, that 
final salvation is arbitrary. Now many of the oppo- 
nents of this conclusion are accustomed to deny the 
true premise, and admit the false one ; acknowledging 
that Election necessarily implies ultimate salvation, but 
contending that it is not arbitrary, but depends on fore- 
seen faith and obedience ; a position which gives their 
opponents a decided advantage over them, and which 
the analogy of the old dispensation to the new may 
convince us is untenable ; whereas, in denying that 
Election does necessarily imply salvation, they would 
find the whole analogy of the Old Testament, and the 
general tenor of St. Paul's admonitions, so completely 
in their favor, that the offensive conclusions would 
be, as far as Scripture testimony goes, irrecoverably 
overthrown : and it would be seen that the abstract 
metaphysical questions respecting Fate and Free-will, 
are left by the Bible exactly where it finds them, un- 
decided and untouched. 

§ 4. Without entering at large on the metaphysical 
questions just alluded to, one remark respecting them 
will not be irrelevant, as it may throw light on the 
subject more particularly before us. I mean that the 
difficulty and confusion in which such questions have 
been involved, have, in a great degree, arisen from in- 
attention to the ambiguity of one particular class of 
words — "possible" and "impossible," "necessary," 
" certain," " contingent," and many others of corres- 
ponding significations to these : which have, by their 
undetected ambiguity, bewildered in a maze of fruitless 
logomachy most of those who have treated of the sub- 
ject. " Certainty," for instance, and " uncertainty," 
which, in the primary sense, denote the state of our 



72 



ON ELECTION. 



own mind, have thence been transferred to the facts 
and events respecting which we are certain or uncer- 
tain, and ultimately, have come to be considered as 
indicating an intrinsic quality in the events themselves, 
and not merely the relation in which they stand to our 
knowledge or ignorance of them ; and " necessity," as 
well as other words allied to it, whose signification 
sometimes refers to coercion, or absence of power, 
sometimes again merely to undoubting and complete 
knowledge, have led to endless fallacies and perplexi- 
ties, when this distinction has been overlooked. Thus, 
the " necessity" (i. e. the absence of freedom) of human 
actions, has by many been inferred from God's certain 
foreknowledge of them. And to this it is not, I think, 
altogether a satisfactory reply, (which is often made,) 
that the divine prescience does not fetter or control 
men's actions, nor in any way operate upon them, any 
more than our knowledge of any fact is the cause of its 
being such ; for though this is undeniably true, it hardly 
meets the difficulty : since it is not meant, I apprehend, 
that the divine foreknowledge makes actions necessary, 
but that it implies that they are so ; just as any one's 
seeing some object before him, implies the real present 
existence of that object ; though no one supposes that 
his seeing it is, in any respect, the cause of its exist- 
ence. But the chief source of this perplexity is the 
equivocal employment of the word " necessity ;" which, 
in one sense, relates to knowledge alone, and, therefore, 
is, of course, implied by prescience ; but in another 
sense relates to compulsion, or want of power, which 
prescience does by no means imply. When we speak, 
for instance, of the " necessity" of mathematical truths, 
we mean merely that they admit of no doubt. And 
again, when we say that a man pining in captivity 
cannot but eagerly embrace the offer of freedom, and 



ON ELECTION. 



73 



restoration to his country, we mean not that he is thus 
placed under compulsion, but that we are well assured 
and have no doubt he will do so. On the other hand, 
when we say that, while in captivity, he cannot but 
submit to the will of his master, we mean that he wants 
power to resist, and liberty to escape ; and when we 
speak of the necessity of death, we mean that mortals 
are unable to avoid it. If this distinction had been duly 
attended to, it would hardly, I think, have been con- 
tended that that necessity of our actions, which the 
divine prescience implies, is at all incompatible with 
our freedom and power to act otherwise. Whether our 
conduct be, in fact, under any restraint or not, at least 
no restraint is implied by the mere foreknowledge of 
it. Let it be supposed (and the case is at least conceiva- 
ble) that you were fully and accurately acquainted with 
the inclinations of some man who was left at perfect 
liberty to follow them ; you could then as distinctly 
know and as exactly describe his future conduct, as any 
past event ; and the very ground of your thus foresee- 
ing and foretelling it would be, not his being under 
restraint, but his entire freedom from it ; for the know- 
ledge of his inclination, if he were not free to follow it, 
would not enable you to foresee the event. 

The divine foreknowledge, again, of " contingent' ' 
or "uncertain" events, would not have been made a 
matter of such mysterious difficulty, if it had been re- 
membered that the same thing may be contingent and 
uncertain to one person, which is not so to another ; 
since those terms denote no quality in the events 
themselves, any more than the terms "visible" and 
" invisible" when applied to eclipses ; inasmuch as that 
which is visible in one part of the world is invisible in 
another ; for the same event may, in like manner, be 
both a contingency and a certainty ; though not to the 
8 



74 



ON ELECTION. 



same person. Any event, for instance, which occurred 
yesterday in some distant part of the world, is, to us, 
uncertain and contingent; and one who calculates on 
its having taken place in this way or that, would be 
said to run the risk, of fortune ; though to those on the 
spot there is no contingency in the case. 

Before I dismiss the consideration of this subject, 
I would suggest one caution relative to & class of ob- 
jections frequently urged against the Calvinistic scheme 
—those drawn from the conclusions of what is called 
natural religion, respecting the moral attributes of the 
Deity ; which, it is contended, render the reprobation 
of a large portion of mankind an absolute impossibility. 
That such objections do reduce the predestinarian to a 
great strait, is undeniable; and not seldom are they 
urged with exulting scorn, with bitter invective, and 
almost with anathema. But we should be very cautious 
how we employ such weapons as may recoil upon our- 
selves. Arguments of this description have often been 
adduced, such as, I fear, will crush beneath the ruins 
of the hostile structure the blind assailant who has 
overthrown it. It is a frightful, but an undeniable 
truth, that multitudes, even in Christian countries, are 
born and brought up under such circumstances as afford 
them no probable, often no possible, chance of obtain- 
ing a knowledge of religious truths, or a habit of moral 
conduct, but are even trained from infancy in super- 
stitious error and gross depravity. Why this should 
be permitted, neither Calvinist nor Arminian can ex- 
plain ; nay, why the Almighty does not cause to die 
in the cradle every infant whose future wickedness and 
misery, if suffered to grow up, He foresees, is what 
no system of religion, natural or revealed, will enable 
us satisfactorily to account for. In truth, these are 
merely branches of the one great difficulty, the existence 



ON ELECTION*. 



75 



of evil, which may almost be called the only difficulty 
in theology. It assumes indeed various shapes ; — it 
is by many hardly recognized as a difficulty ; and not 
a few have professed and believed themselves to have 
solved it ; but it still meets them, though in some new 
and disguised form, at every turn, — like a resistless 
stream, which, when one channel is dammed up, im- 
mediately forces its way through another. And as the 
difficulty is one not peculiar to any one hypothesis, 
but bears equally on all alike, whether of revealed or 
of natural religion, it is better in point of prudence as 
well as of fairness, that the consequences of it should 
not be pressed as an objection against any. The 
Scriptures do not pretend (as some have rashly ima- 
gined) to clear up this awful mystery : they give us no 
explanation of the original cause of the evil that exists ; 
but they teach us how to avoid its effects: and since 
they leave this great and perplexing question just where 
they find it, it is better for us to leave it among u the 
secret things which belong unto the Lord our God," 
and to occupy ourselves with " the things which are 
revealed," and which concern us practically, — which 
"belong unto us and to our children," that we may 
" do all the words of God's law." 

§ 5. It is on these principles, viz. that the first point 
of inquiry at least ought to be what doctrines are 
revealed in God's word, — and that we ought to expect 
that the doctrines so revealed should be, not matters 
of speculative curiosity, but of practical importance- 
such as "belong- to us that we may do them;" — it is 
in conformity, I say, with these principles, that I have 
waived the question as to the truth or falsity of the 
Calvinistic doctrine of Election ; inquiring only whether 
it is revealed : and one of the reasons for deciding that 



76 



ON ELECTION. 



question in the negative, is the very circumstance that 
the doctrine is, if rightly viewed, of a purely speculative 
character, not " belonging to us" practically, — and 
which ought not at least, in any way, to influence our 
conduct. It has indeed been frequently objected to 
the Calvinistic doctrines, that they lead, if consistently 
acted upon, to a sinful, or to a careless, or to an inactive 
life ; and the inference deduced from this alleged tend- 
ency, has been that they are not true. But this is a 
totally distinct line of argument, both in premises and 
conclusion, from that now adverted to ; and I mention 
it, not for the purpose either of maintaining or im- 
pugning it, but merely of pointing out the distinction. 
Whatever may be, in fact, the practical ill tendency of 
the Calvinistic scheme, it is undeniable that many pious 
and active Christians, w T ho have adopted it, have denied 
any such tendency, — have attributed the mischievous 
consequences drawn, not to their doctrines rightly 
understood, but to the perversion and abuse of them ; — 
and have so explained them, to their own satisfaction, 
as to be compatible and consistent with active virtue. 
Now if instead of objecting to, we admit, the explana- 
tions of this system which the soundest and most 
approved of its advocates have given, we shall find 
that, when understood as they would have it, it can 
lead to no practical result whatever. Some Christians, 
according to them, are eternally enrolled in the book 
of life, and infallibly ordained to salvation, while others 
are reprobate and absolutely excluded; but as the 
preacher (they add) has no means of knowing, in the 
first instance at least, which persons belong to which 
class ; and since those who are thus ordained, are to 
be saved through the means God has appointed ; the 
offers, and promises, and threatenings of the Gospel 
are to be addressed to all alike, as if no such distinc- 



ON ELECTION. 



77 



lion existed. The preacher, in short, is to act in all 
respects, as if the system were not true. Each in- 
dividual Christian again, according to them, though he 
is to believe that he either is, or is not, absolutely 
destined to eternal salvation, yet is also to believe, that 
(/"his salvation is decreed, his holiness of life is also 
decreed ; — he is to judge of his own state by " the 
fruits of the Spirit" which he brings forth : to live in 
sin, or to relax his virtuous exertions, would be an| 
indication of his not being really (though he may flatter 
himself he is) one of the elect. And it may be admitted 
that one who does practically adopt and conform to 
this explanation of the doctrine, will not be led into 
any evil by it ; since his conduct will not be in any 
respect influenced by it. When thus explained, it is 
reduced to a purely speculative dogma, barren of all 
practical results. 

Taking the system in question then, as expounded 
by its soundest advocates, it is impossible to show any 
one point in which a person is called upon either to 
act or to feel, in any respect differently, in consequence 
of his adopting it. And this conclusion indeed may be 
considered as virtually admitted by the maintainers of 
the Calvinistic scheme ; since whenever they are en- 
gaged in setting forth the beneficial results of their 
doctrines, they invariably dwell on such as are not 
peculiar to them ; such as, faith in the atonement, — 
self-abasement and renunciation of all reliance on our 
own merits, — gratitude for Christ's redeeming mercy, 
— and reliance on the promised guidance of the Holy 
Spirit; and other such doctrines, which are indeed both 
true and of inestimable practical value, but which have 
no necessary or natural connexion with the peculiar 
notions of Calvin respecting election; and which, in 
8* 



78 



ON ELECTION. 



fact, are sincerely and heartily embraced by numbers 
who reject those notions. 

Now since it is plainly the object of the Scriptures 
to declare to us such truths as it concerns us to know, 
with a view to the regulation of our lives, not, such as 
are, to us, mere matters of speculative curiosity ; and 
since the doctrines in question, when so explained as 
to lead to no evil results, lead to no practical results 
at all, the natural inference must be (even independent 
of the arguments formerly urged) that these doctrines 
are not such as we can reasonably expect at least, to 
find revealed in Scripture ; and if not so revealed, be 
they true or false, they can constitute no part of the 
Christian faith. It is not contended that the doctrines 
in question have a hurtful influence on human conduct, 
and consequently are untrue ; but that they have, ac- 
cording to the soundest exposition of them, no influence 
on our conduct whatever ; and, consequently, that they 
are not to be taught as revealed truths. 

§ 6. Let it not be said, however, that being at least 
harmless, it is unimportant whether they are inculcated 
or not ; they are harmless, to those who adopt them 
in the sense, and with the qualifications just mentioned ; 
but it does not follow that they are harmless to others. 
On the one hand, that " the doctrines of predestination, 
and our election in Christ" may be so held as to prove 
(according to the language of our article) a " dangerous 
downfall," will hardly be denied by any ; and, on the 
other hand, they may prove a stumbling-block to those 
who do not hold them, by raising a prejudice against 
other doctrines — some of the most important of Chris- 
tianity, — when taught in conjunction with these, and 
represented as connected with them. Now it is to be 



ON ELECTION. 



79 



admitted, indeed, that there may be dangers of this 
nature attendant on every Gospel truth ; since there is 
none that may not be perverted by some, or that may 
not give offence to others ; but in the case of any 
thing which plainly appears to be Gospel truth, this 
danger must be braved; we must preach God's word 
as we have received it, and trust in him to prosper 
and defend it: but it is not so, in the case of doc- 
trines which (whether true or not) are not plainly 
declared in Scripture ; the dangers to which any such 
doctrines may lead, are needlessly and wantonly in- 
curred ; and those who preach them are answerable 
for the results. If the speculations of human ingenuity 
be mingled with the revealed word of God, even though 
the opinions maintained be true, some may be misled, 
and others unnecessarily disgusted ; Christianity may 
be loaded (as Dr. Paley expresses himself respecting 
transubstantiation) with a weight that sinks it ; and the 
mischiefs ensuing will be justly imputable to the rash- 
ness of those who give occasion to them. 

Let Christians, then, be taught to rejoice indeed in 
their high privileges, as the " Called," and 44 Elect," and 
" Peculiar people of God ;" but let them be taught also, 
while they offer up their thanks for his unmerited 
mercies, to consider their own diligence and care as 
indispensable, not only to their attainment of the offer- 
ed blessings, but also to their escape from an aggravated 
condemnation, — for 44 provoking and grieving Him who 
has done so great things for them," 44 as in the provo- 
cation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilder- 
ness." Let them be told to trust indeed firmly in the 
aid and guidance of God's Holy Spirit, which will con- 
duct those who earnestly seek it, and walk according 
to it, through the perils of the wilderness of this world, 
to the glories of their promised inheritance ; but let 



80 



ON ELECTION. 



them learn from the rebellious Israelites, that he will 
not force them to enter into that good land, but will 
even exclude from it those who refuse to hearken to 
him. Wherefore, " let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." God is indeed "faithful who 
hath promised ;" but he requires us also to be faithful 
to ourselves ; and he has taught us, both by direct 
precepts and by examples, that if we harden our hearts, 
and will not hear his voice, we shall not 44 enter into 
his rest." 



• 



ESSAY IV. 

ON PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



§ 1. There are many passages in St. Paul's writings 
in which the apostle expresses his assured expectation 
of the final success of his converts in attaining the 
Gospel promises ; for instance, " Being confident of this 
very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in 
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ ;" 
i; e. that at his last coming to judge the world, they 
will be numbered among the inheritors of immortal 
happiness with him. It is in a similar tone that he 
addresses the Corinthians in the beginning of his first 
epistle to them : "Waiting for the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, 
that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus 
Christ/' Indeed there is hardly any one of his epis- 
tles in which he does not express the same exulting 
anticipation of eternal life awaiting his beloved on earth: 
the gratitude and joy which he consequently feels on 
their behalf, are scarcely ever left unmentioned. 

Passages of this description are appealed to as 
establishing the doctrine of 44 final Perseverance" and 
44 Assurance ;" that is, of the impossibility of ultimate 
failure, to those who are once truly elected of God ; 
and the complete conviction which such persons may 
attain on earth of their own safety. The dangerous 
consequences again, apprehended by many, from these 
as well as other doctrines maintained on St. Paul's 



82 *PER SEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 

authority, have accordingly but too often led them to 
depreciate his writings, or to regard them with suspi- 
cion and dread, and to keep them in a great degree out 
of sight. 

That such opinions as those alluded to (as far, that is, 
as they are erroneous and mischievous) have been 
grounded on a misunderstanding of St. Paul, and may 
be the most effectually refuted by a fair and correct ex- 
position of his meaning, I have endeavored to show in 
the preceding Essay, as far as relates to the doctrine of 
Christian Election. Closely connected with this, and 
next in natural order to it, are the other doctrines just 
mentioned : on which, accordingly, I now propose to 
offer some remarks. But it will be the less necessary 
to dwell on them, on account of that closeness of con- 
nexion ; the one question being a kind of offshoot from 
the other. Absolute predestination to eternal life evi- 
dently implies the physical impossibility of ultimate 
failure, —in short, the infallible perseverance of the 
Elect ; and if any one have arrived at the knowledge 
that he is one of the Elect, he cannot but have the most 
complete Assurance of his own safety. And these no- 
tions are, not without some probable grounds at least, 
regarded by many as pernicious in the extreme ; — as 
naturally leading to careless and arrogant confidence, — 
spiritual pride, — relaxation of virtuous efforts, — and 
indulgence of vicious propensities. They have accord- 
ingly labored to repel this danger by dwelling much 
and sedulously on the uncertainty, even to the last, of 
the state of even the best Christian ; and of the possi- 
bility of his falling even from the most confirmed state 
of grace and holiness. 

§ 2. It should be remembered, however, that we may 
in our extreme caution against one danger, fall into the 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



83 



opposite. Presumptuous confidence, and careless secu- 
rity, are indeed evils to be carefully guarded against ; 
but they are not the only evils to be apprehended : de- 
spondency, and what is more likely to occur, a deadness 
of the affections in all that relates to religion, and a 
total aversion of the mind towards it, may be generated, 
in some persons at least, by dwelling too much and too 
earnestly on the chances of ultimate failure. It should 
be remembered, too, that the doctrines of Perseverance 
in godliness, and of Assurance of salvation, in some 
sense or other, have received the full sanction of St. 
Paul; nor would he so often and so strongly have 
expressed his grateful exultation in the spiritual state of 
his converts, and his full confidence that the good work 
begun in them would ultimately be completed, had he 
not considered the exhibition of these cheering and en- 
couraging prospects, as highly edifying, and conducive 
to their Christian progress. And I cannot but think 
that the apostle's example in this point has been too 
little attended to by some writers ; who overlook the 
dangers on one side, while they overrate those on the 
other ; which at the same time they do not take the 
most effectual way to obviate. It is not enough that 
they express the fullest confidence in God's fulfil- 
ment of his promises, to all who are not wanting on 
their part. To one whose mind is disposed to serious 
thoughtfulness, all doubts respecting his final salvation 
(however well convinced he may be that if he fail of it, 
the fault will be his own) — doubts which must imply 
the apprehension of the unspeakably horrible alterna- 
tive, — cannot but suggest (in proportion as they prevail) 
the wish that Christianity were untrue : — that this life 
were the whole of his existence, rather than that the 
remotest risk of such an alternative should be incurred. 
And a wish of this kind is utterly at variance with such 



84 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



a state of mind, as according to St. Paul, the Christian's 
ought to be. For it must not be imagined that a wish 
relative to something which (as in the present case) 
does not at all depend on our choice, must, therefore, 
be wholly inoperative and unimportant. No man's 
wishes can indeed make a religion false ; they may even 
not cause him to disbelieve it ; but they may yet very 
easily lead him (without any deliberate design) habit- 
ually to withdraw his thoughts from a painfully alarming 
subject. There is a propensity in the human mind, 
which, however unreasonable and absurd, is instinctive, 
and almost unavoidable, to turn away, insensibly more 
and more, from the contemplation of that which is un- 
pleasant. Nor will such feelings of dread, distaste, and 
aversion, as have been alluded to, be necessarily confin- 
ed (as at first .sight one might suppose) to men who are 
knowingly leading such a life as can afford them little 
or no just ground of hope in the Gospel promises : for 
it should be remembered, that the apprehension of 
suffering is so incomparably more keen than the anti- 
cipation of gratification, — so faint and feeble are our 
conceptions of happiness, compared with those of mise- 
ry, — that the least admixture of a dread of any very 
terrible evil, will (when really impressed on the mind) 
more than counterbalance a far greater amount of favor- 
able hopes ; and, consequently, to a thoughtful mind, 
the idea of certain annihilation would appear far prefer- 
able to the remotest chance of endless misery. 

Now it is with those of a thoughtful turn that we are 
concerned in the present question. As for the great 
mass of the careless and worldly, they are, indeed, for 
the most part, far too confident of salvation ; but their 
confidence commonly results from a vague, general, 
unweighed notion of God's mercy ; not, from any Cal- 
vinistic persuasion of their being selected from the rest 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



85 



of mankind, and ordained to persevere in holiness, under 
the constant guidance of the Divine Spirit. They 
need, indeed, to be, if possible, alarmed and filled with 
apprehension ; but it is a far different kind of alarm they 
need, from that of which we have been speaking; they 
need to be warned of the dangers attendant on a care- 
less, not on an active and zealous Christian life ; of the 
danger, not of falling from a state of grace, but of 
never striving to be in such a state ; of the danger of 
losing heaven, not by turning from the service of God, 
but by not turning from the service of sin. Their false 
security arises, not from their dwelling, with too confi- 
dent expectation, on the glories of a better world, but 
from their thinking too little, or not at all, of any world 
but this. Let such be alarmed, by all means possible, 
into a just sense of the ruin to w T hich they are hasten- 
ing, by taking no pains to lead a Christian life ; and to 
urge such a ground of alarm will have no tendency to 
dishearten those who are conscious of an earnest desire 
and endeavor to live to God. And the more confidence 
is expressed of the final success of those who will come 
to Christ, and set themselves to work out their own 
salvation, the more will the sinner be encouraged to 
begin in earnest, and pursue with vigor, the great work 
of reformation. 

§ 3. But is there, then, it may be asked, no "fear and 
trembling" to be felt by all men in working out their 
salvation? Can any man be exempt from all danger of 
excessive and presumptuous confidence? Undoubtedly 
such a danger is always, and by every one, to be sedu- 
lously guarded against ; but it will be best guarded 
against, not by seeking to lower the Christian's hopes, 
but by connecting his confidence with his own unre- 
mitting efforts ; by striving to establish in his thoughts 
9 



86 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



an inseparable combination between the idea of the 
happiness he looks forward to, and that of the requisite 
exertions on his part. The fullest confidence of attain- 
ing any object, if the attainment of it be still regarded 
as dependent on our own endeavors, and if that con- 
fidence be grounded on a firm resolution to use those 
endeavors, can never lead to negligence and inactivity.* 



a It is to be observed, however, by the way, that there are many ex- 
pressions in Scripture, which do not even imply any full conviction in 
the writer's mind that a particular event will take place; though, taken 
strictly, they might seem to imply this, and have, probably, been often 
so understood. Instances may be found, probably, in all languages, 
but I think they are particularly common in Greek, of the same terms 
being used in speaking of an object proposed, and of an object attained ; 
a fall design and attempt to do any thing, is often expressed in the 
same manner as if it had been actually done. Thus in the Ajax of 
Sophocles, (to take an instance from a profane writer,) Agamemnon 
charges Ajax with having murdered him; i. e. having done all that in 
him lay to accomplish that purpose, though his design was frustrated 
by extraneous impediments. And, indeed, nothing is more common 
in most of the ancient writers, than to speak of a person's having done 
this or that, i. e. having been doing it — having formed the design, and 
actually set about it, though the attempt was stopped. In this sense, 
the Lord is repeatedly said to have delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, 
to bring them into the land of Canaan, which he had promised to their 
forefathers ; and yet the whole generation perished in the wilderness 
through their own refusal, when summoned, to take possession of the 
promised land ; and a considerable portion of the promised land was 
never occupied even by their posterity, through their own neglect to 
drive out the nations whose territory had been allotted to them. In 
this case, the positive and unqualified declarations of Scripture, not 
only do not imply any compulsion exercised on the Israelites, but do 
not even imply a foreknowledge that the events would take place ; but 
merely that the Lord had performed his part, and had left it completely 
in their power to bring about the events in question. 

So also, many of the expressions of the sacred writers, in which they 
speak of the holiness of life here, and eternal life hereafter, provided 
by the grace of God for those whom they are addressing, not only do 
not relate to any absolute predestination to reward, or irresistible con- 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



The Christian who is earnestly striving to be led by 
the Holy Spirit, and to " grow in grace" daily, must not 
be told indeed that he cannot turn aside from the ricrht 
path if he would; that it is out of his power to fall into 
a life of sin: but that fear and trembling which I con- 
ceive St. Paul to have intended, the conviction, namely, 
that our care and diligence are never to be laid aside 
even to the end, will not lessen such confidence as pro- 
ceeds on the full determination to retain that diligent 
care; nor will it dash with any mixture of gloomy ap- 
prehensions the joyful anticipations with which such 
a Christian looks forward to a future life. 

§ 4. We may learn, not only from St. Paul's precepts 
relative to Christian trust and " joy in the Holy Ghost," 
but also from his example, as recorded in the Acts of 
the Apostles, in concerns of a different nature, that he 
at least did not consider the active and circumspect 
employment of means, inconsistent with the most un- 
doubting certainty as to the event ; even a certainty 
founded on immediate precise revelation from heaven. 
Let any one read the account of what befell him while 
imprisoned at Jerusalem, and he will find him assured, 
by a supernatural vision, of his deliverance from the 
then present danger : " Be of good cheer, Paul, for 

trol of the will ; but do not necessarily imply, according to a fair con- 
struction of the language, even so much as a perfect confidence in the 
writers, that these objects will, in fact, be attained ; but merely that 
such is the design and tendency of the Gospel dispensation ; — that God 
had placed these things within their reach. 

I am not contending, be it observed, that this absolute predestination 
and irresistible grace may not, in fact, be a part of the Gospel scheme 
in the Divine Mind ; but only that no inference to that effect can be 
fairly drawn from the words of the apostles. They may be truths, but 
they are not revealed truths ; they may belong to the Gospel scheme, 
but not to the Gospel revelation. 



88 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



thou must bear witness of me also at Rome." Yet 
when the designs of the conspirators to murder him 
came to his knowledge, he took every precaution (by- 
sending to warn the chief captain) that prudent appre- 
hension could suggest. Again was he favored, on the 
occasion of the shipwreck, with a like supernatural 
assurance, that he, being destined by his Master to 
arrive at Rome, should be saved from the peril of the 
sea : and, moreover, that his companions should be 
spared also for his sake, and should come safe to land : 
yet immediately after, we find him using and suggest- 
ing every precautionary means that could have occurred 
to the most doubting and fearful : it was through Paul's 
presence of mind that the mariners were withheld from 
deserting the ship, and depriving the passengers of their 
needful aid : " Then said Paul, Except these abide in 
the ship, ye cannot be saved Was it then that he 
doubted, in this or in the former case, the supernatural 
assurance he had received? Surely not: but he re- 
garded that very assurance as grounded on the suppo- 
sition that he himself should employ all those regular 
means, which he on his part was ready and fully 
resolved to employ : his exertions (which he was 
conscious of being determined to use) formed the hypo- 
thesis (if I may so speak) on which the divine promise 
proceeded ; and he evidently judged it possible that 
he might, in one sense of the phrase, lose his life at 
Jerusalem, or in the shipwreck; L e. it was in his 
power to cast away his life if he chose not to use the 
requisite exertions ; but such a possibility as this, 
could not lead to any doubt or apprehension. 

Nor is this a distinction too refined for any but the 
highest and most perfect order of minds ; on the con- 
trary, experience shows that it is within the reach of 
the most ordinary capacity. Nothing indeed is more 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



89 



common than the expression of a full conviction as to 
what some person's conduct will be on some particular 
occasion ; that conviction being grounded on the sup- 
position that his disposition as to the point in question 
is fully ascertained, and that it is a matter depending 
on his own free choice. " Such a one is sure" it is 
said, " to act in this manner " he is incapable of 
doing so and so." And when we thus prophesy ano- 
ther's conduct, we are evidently exempt from all danger 
of mistake, supposing we are originally correct in our 
judgment as to the other's inclination, and as to his 
being free to follow that inclination ; and yet, though 
it is in a certain sense " impossible" that he should act 
otherwise, so far is this anticipation of his conduct from 
implying that he is powerless, or under restraint, that 
it proceeds on the very supposition of his being left 
perfectly free. 

And again, with respect to one's own conduct, that 
confidence of success necessarily diminishes exertion, 
is notoriously the reverse of the truth. " Possunt quia 
posse videntur," is a maxim whose triteness bears wit- 
ness to its justness. Every general, accordingly, seeks 
to inspire his soldiers with the firmest confidence of 
victory; which experience proves to be the best incen- 
tive to those exertions which are requisite to ensure it. 
Many a man, from having been persuaded by omens or 
by the predictions of astrologers, that he is fated to 
attain some great object, has, in consequence, instead 
of being lulled into carelessness by this belief, been 
excited to the most laborious and unwearied efforts, 
such as perhaps he would not otherwise have thought 
of making, for the attainment of his object, 13 And the 

b The Macbeth of Shakspeare may be appealed to as an example 
even more convincing than that of any single individual of real history ; 
if at least it be admitted that Shakspeare in his delineations of character 

9* 



90 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



common sense even of the simple and unlearned Chris- 
tian, will be sufficient to show him, and show him 
practically, the distinction between that vain confidence 
which leads to inactivity, and a rational confidence con- 
nected with exertion ; provided a due attention is but 
paid to those ambiguities of language which have been 
already noticed. In fact, he may be easily taught that 
the distinction is one which he acts upon continually 
in the ordinary affairs of life. When returning, for 
instance, from his daily labor to his home, he feels a 
perfect certainty (supposing his life and limbs to be 
spared) that he shall reach his home ; it is an event of 
which, practically, he feels no more doubt than of the 
setting of the sun; but he does not therefore stand still, 
and neglect to use the means, because he is confident 
of the event : on the contrary, the very ground of his 
confidence is the full determination he feels to press 
forward towards his object. 

In like manner, (it may be explained to him) it was 
in one sense possible, though in another sense impossi- 
ble, that St. Paul should, even at his last trial, have 



is true to nature. For if so, they must be conformable to general 
nature ; and each character must be a representative, if not of man 
universally, at least of some class of men. A real individual, on the 
contrary, may chance to be an exception to all general rules ; but such 
a person could not be introduced in a drama without bringing censure 
on the poet as guilty of a departure from nature. Now Macbeth is 
evidently both prompted in the first instance to aim at the crown, and 
fortified to go through with his attempt, by the prediction of the witches. 
We might abstractedly have supposed that he would even have been 
withheld, had he previously had the design, from the perpetration of 
a crime he abhorred, by the consideration that it must be needless, 
since it was infallibly decreed that he should be king. Once, and only 
once, the thought occurs to him, "If Fate will have me king, why 
Fate may crown me ; ,J but far from acting on this view, rational as it 
appears, his conduct is throughout in direct opposition to it. 



PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. 



91 



deserted and renounced his Saviour; i. e. it was com- 
pletely in his power ; it depended on himself whether 
he would forsake his Lord, and forfeit his rich inherit- 
ance, or "lay hold on eternal life" which was just 
before him ; so that in one sense it was true that he 
might fall and perish eternally ; but he was conscious 
that though he had the power, he had not the will thus 
to apostatize ; and, therefore, fully trusting in his Sa- 
viour's promises, and in a resolution supported by 
divine aid, he pours forth (in his Second Epistle to 
Timothy) his exulting confidence of persevering even 
to the end, "The time of my departure is at hand: 
I have fought a good fight ; I have finished my course ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in 
that day !" 

Let the careless Christian then be roused and alarmed; 
let the presumptuous be warned and repressed ; — but 
let no distressing and disheartening doubts be implanted 
in the breast of the zealous, though humble and timid 
follower of Christ : and let his confidence be always 
indeed made to rest on the supposition of his own 
unremitting care and earnest endeavor ; while, at the 
same time, it is also made to rest not on his own 
unaided strength, but on the promised support of Him 
who " worketh in us both to will and to do." Let him 
be encouraged to rejoice at the bright prospect set before 
him ; but to rejoice in the spiritual strength ensured to 
him by the Lord, who "never faileth them that seek 
him." "Rejoice," says the apostle, to such a Chris- 
tian, " rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, 
rejoice, .... being confident of this very thing, that 
He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform 
it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



ESSAY V 

ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



There are very many passages relative to the Mosaic 
Law, occuring in the writings of St. Paul, (especially 
in the Epistle to the Romans, and in those to the Gala- 
tians and to the Hebrews.) whose most obvious and 
simple interpretation, at least, would seem to imply the 
entire abolition of that law, by the establishment of the 
Gospel. For instance, Rom. vii. 6. ; " But now we are 
delivered from the law. that being dead wherein we were 
held — or, according to another, and perhaps better 
reading, which makes no material difference, "being 
dead to that law wherein we were held." And these 
passages constitute one class of those from which such 
pernicious consequences have been sometimes deduced, 
and oftener, perhaps, apprehended, as have occasioned 
the writings of this apostle to be regarded by some per- 
sons with suspicion and alarm. A few, and but a few, 
have openly inferred, — a greater number probably have 
incautiously led their hearers to infer, — from St. Paul's 
declarations relative to our justification "by faith, with- 
out the deeds of the law," that the Christian is under no 
obligation to the practice of virtue, — nor incurs, if he 
be one of the elect, any spiritual danger from the com- 
mission of sin ; and the dread of this Antinomian system 
has occasioned others, as I have before remarked, to 
withdraw their own and their hearers' attention, either 



OX THE ABOLITION" OF THE LAW. 93 

from the writings of this apostle altogether, or from 
those parts of them which are thought to countenance 
such a doctrine. 

§ 1. That the virtuous or vicious conduct of a Chris- 
tian have nothing to do with his final salvation, and are 
indifferent in God's sight, has been inferred from the 
total abrogation, under the Gospel scheme, of the Mo- 
saic law : which abrogation, it is contended, St. Paul 
plainly declares, without any limitation or exception — 
any distinction between moral, and ceremonial or civil 
precepts. On the other side is urged the strenuous and 
repeated inculcation of moral duties, not only by the 
other sacred writers, but by St. Paul himself as much 
as any ; together with his earnest denial of the licen- 
tious consequences which some might be disposed to 
infer from his doctrines : for instance, 44 What shall we 
say, then \ Shall we continue in sin, that grace may 
abound ? God forbid !" And again, 44 Shall we sin 
because we are not under the law, but under grace ? 
God forbid !" And hence it is concluded that that abo- 
lition of the law which is spoken of, relates only to the 
ceremonial and civil precepts, and that the moral law 
remains binding on all men for ever. But this mode of 
stating the case, though substantially correct, leaves a 
considerable difficulty unsolved : it points out indeed 
the inconsistency of the Antinomian scheme with one 
portion of St. Paul's writings; but it leaves unexplain- 
ed, and, consequently, open to unfavorable suspicion, 
the other portion before alluded to : it fails, in short, 
to reconcile St. Paul with himself. For it cannot be 
denied that he does speak, frequently and strongly, of 
the termination of the Mosaic law, and of the exemp- 
tion of Christians from its obligations, without ever 
limiting and qualifying the assertion, — without even 



94 ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 

hinting at a distinction between one part which is 
abrogated, and another which remains in full force. 
It cannot be said that he had in his mind the ceremo- 
nial law alone, and was alluding merely to the abolition 
of that; for in the very passages in question, he makes 
such allusions to sin as evidently show that he had the 
moral law in his mind ; as, for instance, where he says, 
" The law was added because of transgressions :" — " by 
the law was the knowledge of sin ;" with many other 
such expressions. And it is remarkable that even 
when he seems to feel himself pressed with the mis- 
chievous practical consequences which either had been, 
or he is sensible might be, drawn from his doctrines, he 
never attempts to guard against these by limiting his 
original assertion ; — by declaring that though part of 
the law Avas at an end, still, part continued to be bind- 
ing ; but he always inculcates the necessity of moral 
conduct on some (liferent ground : for instance, " What 
shall we say, then 1 Shall we continue in sin that grace 
may abound ? God forbid!" He does not then add, 
that a part of the Mosaic law remains in force, but urges 
this consideration, " How shall we, who are dead to 
sin, live any longer therein ? Know ye not that so 
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were 
baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried with 
Him by baptism into death ; that like as Christ was 
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
even so we also should walk in newness of life." . . . . 
" Rowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, 
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth 
we should not serve sin" And again, " Shall we sin 
because we are not under the law, but under grace ? 
God forbid ! Know ye not that to whom ye yield your- 
selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey ? whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



95 



righteousness" . . . . " being then made free from sin, 
ye became the servants of righteousness." And such also 
is his tone in every passage relating to the same subject. 

§ 2. Now let us but adopt the obvious interpretation 
of St. Paul's words, and admit the entire abrogation, 
according to him, of the Mosaic law ; concluding that 
it was originally designed for the Israelites alone, and 
that its dominion over them ceased when the Gospel 
system commenced ; and we shall find that this conces- 
sion does not go a step towards establishing the Anti- 
nomian conclusion, that moral conduct is not required 
of Christians. For it is evident that the natural dis- 
tinctions of right and wrong, which conscience points 
out, must remain where they were. These distinctions, 
not having been introduced by the Mosaic law, cannot, 
it is evident, be overthrown by its removal ; any more 
than the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, im- 
plied the destruction of the Mount Sion whereon it was 
built. St. Paul does, indeed, speak in some passages 
of the law as having been a guide and instructer in mat- 
ters of morality ; as where he says, " I had not known 
sin but by the law but that this must not be under- 
stood, in the fullest extent, as implying that no moral 
obligation could exist or could be understood, inde- 
pendent of the Mosaic revelation, is evident not only 
from the nature of the case, but from his own remarks 
in the same epistle, relative to " the Gentiles, which 
have not the law," being capable of " doing by nature 
the things contained in the law .... their conscience 
also bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or else 
excusing one another;" and of their "knowing" (in 
cases where they committed sin) " that they who do 
such things are worthy of death." To say, therefore, 
that no part of the Jewish law is binding on Christians, 



96 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



is very far from leaving them at liberty to disregard all 
moral duties. For, in fact, the very definition of a 
moral duty, implies its universal obligation independ- 
ent of all enactment. The precepts respecting sacrifices, 
for instance, and other ceremonial observances, we call 
Positive ordinances ; meaning, that the things in ques- 
tion became duties because they were commanded :— 
the commandment to love one's neighbor as one's self, on 
the contrary, we call a moral precept, on the very 
ground that this was a thing commanded because it was 
right. And it is evident that w T hat was right or wrong 
in itself before the law existed, must remain such after 
it is abrogated. Before the commandments to do no 
murder, and to honor one's parents, had been delivered 
from Mount Sinai, Cain was cursed for killing his 
brother, and Ham for dishonoring his father ; which 
crimes, therefore, could not cease to be such, at least? 
as any consequence of the abolition of that law. 

Nor need it be feared that to proclaim an exemption 
from the Mosaic law should leave men without any 
moral guide, and at a loss to distinguish right and wrong : 
since, after all, the light of reason is that to which every 
man must be left, in the very interpretation of that law. 
For Moses, it should be remembered, did not write three 
distinct books, one of the Ceremonial law, one of the 
Civil, and a third of the Moral ; nor does he hint at any 
such distinction. When, therefore, any one is told that 
a part of the Mosaic precepts are binding on us, viz. 
the moral ones, if he ask which are the Moral precepts, 
and how to distinguish them from the Ceremonial and 
the Civil, with which they are mingled, the answer must 
be, that his conscience, if he consult it honestly, will 
determine that point. So far, consequently, from the 
jnoral precepts of the Moral law, being, to the Christian, 
necessary to determine what is right and wrong, on the 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



97 



contrary, this moral judgment is necessary to determine 
what are the moral precepts of Moses. 

The study, indeed, of the moral law of Moses is 
profitable for instruction, and may serve to aid our 
judgment in some doubtful cases that may occur ; pro- 
vided we are careful to bear in mind all the circum- 
stances under which each precept was delivered. For 
there is a presumption that what was commanded or 
prohibited by Moses, is right or wrong in itself, unless 
some reason can he assigned, which makes our case at 
present different from that of the Israelites ; — some cir- 
cumstance of distinction, which either leaves us more 
at large than they, or (as is oftener the case) calls for 
a higher and purer moral practice from us. But to 
consult a code of moral precepts for instruction, is very 
different from referring to that as a standard, and rule 
of conduct. 

If the notion then that such as are not under the 
Mosaic law, are, on that account, exempt from all moral 
obligations, be rejected as utterly groundless, and if, 
consequently, no practical danger or absurdity be in- 
volved in the supposition of that law being fully abro- 
gated, the conclusion that it is so abrogated will hardly 
be any longer open to doubt ; being evidently the most 
agreeable to St. Paul's expressions in their obvious, 
natural, and unstrained sense. And, indeed, the very 
law itself indicates, on the face of it, that the whole of 
its precepts were intended for the Israelites exclusively, 
(on which supposition they cannot, of course, be bind- 
ing on Christians,) not only from the intermixture of 
civil and ceremonial precepts with moral, but from the 
very terms in which even these are delivered. For 
instance, there cannot be any duties more clearly of 
universal obligation, than that of the worship of the 
one true God alone, and that of honoring parents ; yet 
10 



98 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



the precepts for both of these are so delivered as to 
address them to the children of Israel exclusively : 
" I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the 
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage : thou shalt 
have none other gods but me." And again, "Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long 
in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" 

The simplest and clearest way then of stating the 
case with respect to the present question, is, to lay 
down, on the one hand, that the Mosaic law was limited 
both to the nation of the Israelites, and to the period 
before the Gospel ; but, on the other hand, that the 
natural principles of morality, which, among other 
things, it inculcates, are from their own character of 
universal obligation; — that, as on the one hand, "no 
Christian man (as our article expresses it) is free from 
the observance of those commandments which are called 
moral," so, on the other hand, it is not because they 
are commandments of the Mosaic law that he is bound 
to obey them, but because they are moraL Indeed, 
there are numerous precepts in the laws, for instance, 
of Solon and Mahomet, from a conformity to which no 
Christian can pretend to exemption ; yet, though we 
are bound to practise almsgiving and several other 
duties there enjoined, and to abstain from murder, for 
instance, and false-witness, which these lawgivers forbid, 
no one would say that a part of the Koran is binding 
on Christians, since their conduct is determined not by 
the authority of the Koran, but by the nature of the case. 

§ 3. The remarks, however, which have been offered, 
may perhaps be admitted as just, by some who will yet 
be disposed to doubt their importance : " the proposed 
statement," they may say, " of the character of a Chris- 
tian's moral obligations, differs from the one opposed 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



99 



to it, merely as a statement ; there is substantially no 
difference, as long as it is fully admitted that the Chris- 
tian is not exempt from the rules of morality." But it 
should be remembered, that the difference between an 
accurate and an inaccurate statement of any doctrine, 
and of the grounds on which it rests, is of no slight 
importance, if not to those who embrace the doctrine, 
at least in reference to such as are disposed to reject or 
to doubt it. It is giving a manifest advantage to the 
advocates of error, to maintain a true conclusion in such 
& form and on such grounds, as leave it open to unan- 
swerable objections. And this has been particularly 
the case in the present instance ; for the only shadow 
of probability which has ever appeared to exist on the 
Antinomian.side, has arisen from the question having 
been made to turn on this point, whether the Mosaic 
law be entirely abolished, or not : one who denies that 
it is, cannot but find a difficulty, at least, in reconciling 
his position with many passages of Scripture ; whereas, 
if we admit the premise which the Antinomians contend 
for, but show how utterly unconnected it is with their 
extravagant conclusion; — if we show that though the ' 
Mosaic law does not bind us, our moral obligations 
exist quite independent of that law, — the monstrous 
position that the moral conduct of Christians has nothing 
to do with their final doom, is at once exposed as totally 
untenable and absurd. 

§ 4. It may be thought, however, that real decided 
speculative Antinomians are so rare, and, moreover, are 
so far beyond the reach of sober reasoning, that it is 
scarcely worth while to devise arguments for their 
refutation. And it must be admitted that the doctrines 
in question are not by any means prevalent ; a circum- 
stance which is very remarkable, and strongly indicates 



100 ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 

their intrinsic improbability. For a system so evidently 
favorable to the natural indolence and sinfulness of man, 
as that which makes our eternal destiny entirely inde- 
pendent of our moral conduct, could not have failed to 
become highly popular, among a large class at least, 
were it not utterly repugnant to reason. A frightfully 
large portion of the world are undeniably practical An- 
tinomians ; i. e. they live as if they did not expect to 
be hereafter accountable for their conduct; and yet it 
will be found, that in theory, very few of these adopt 
the Antinomian hypothesis, which would be the most 
effectual in quieting the conscience of the sinner ; a 
circumstance which furnishes most powerful testimony 
against the truth of that hypothesis. 

But however small may be the danger of the Anti- 
nomian heresy gaining ground, the right interpretation 
of Scripture relative to this point, is not, therefore, the 
less important. • The opinion that the Gospel exempts 
men from moral obligation is not the error which I have 
had principally in view, but another, much more pre- 
valent, — that of suspecting that St. Paul lends some 
support to such an opinion ; and, consequently, of de- 
preciating the authority, or discouraging the study, of 
his writings. It is on this account chiefly that I have 
endeavored to show, in this and two former Essays, 
how far St. Paul is from affording any countenance to 
certain doctrines, the advocates of which usually appeal 
to his authority. 

But another, and perhaps still more important use, 
may be made of the view which has been now taken. 
St. Paul, we find, while he earnestly contends for the 
entire abolition of the Mosaic law, still recognises the 
authority of that moral law which is written on man's 
heart. This consideration not only deprives Anti- 
nomians of all shadow of support for their system, and 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



101 



removes the prejudice which might exist against the apos- 
tle, but it also leads us to reflect on his method of incul- 
cating moral duties, and on his reasons for adopting it. 

If men are taught to regard the Mosaic law (with the 
exception of the civil and ceremonial ordinances) as 
their appointed rule of life, they will be disposed to 
lower the standard of Christian morality, by contenting 
themselves with a literal adherence to the express com- 
mands of that law ; or, at least, merely to enlarge that 
code, by the addition of such precise moral precepts as 
they find distinctly enacted in the New Testament. 
Now this was very far from being the apostle's view 
of the Christian life. Not only does the Gospel require 
a morality in many respects higher and more perfect 
in itself than the law, but it places morality, universally, 
on higher grounds. Instead of precise rules, it fur- 
nishes sublime principles of conduct; leaving the Chris- 
tian to apply these, according to his own discretion, in 
each case that may arise, and thus to be " a law unto 
• himself." Gratitude for the redeeming love of God in 
Christ, mingled with veneration and affection for the 
person of our great Master, and an exalted emulation, 
leading us to tread in his steps — an earnest longing to 
behold his glories, and to enjoy his presence, in the 
world to come — with an earnest effort to prepare for 
that better world — love towards our brethren for His 
sake who died for us and them — and, above all, the 
thought that the Christian is a part of " the temple of 
the Holy Ghost," who dwelleth in the Church — even 
the " Spirit of Christ, without which we are none of 
his," a temple which we are bound to keep undeflled ; — 
these, and such as these, are the Gospel principles of 
morality, into a conformity with which the Christian is 
to fashion his heart and his life ; and they are such 
principles as the Mosaic dispensation could not furnish. 
10* 



102 ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



The Israelites, as not only living under a revelation 
which had but a shadow of the good things of the Gospel, 
but also as a dull, and gross-minded, and imperfectly- 
civilized people, in a condition corresponding to that 
of childhood, were in few things left to their own moral 
discretion, but were furnished with precise rules in 
most points of conduct ; answering to the exact regu- 
lations under which children are necessarily placed, 
and which are gradually relaxed as they advance towards 
maturity ; not by any means on the ground that good 
conduct is less required of men than of children ; but 
that they are expected to be more capable of regulating 
their own conduct by their own discretion, and of acting 
upon principle. 

§ 5. When, then, the Mosaic code was abolished, we 
find no other system of rules substituted in its place. 
Our Lord and his apostles enforced such duties as were 
the most liable to be neglected, — corrected some pre- 
vailing errors, — gave some particular directions which 
particular occasions called for, — but laid down no set 
of rules for the conduct of a Christian : they laid down 
Christian principles instead : they sought to implant 
Christian dispositions. And this is the more remarka- 
ble, inasmuch as we may be sure, from the nature of 
man, that precise regulations, even though somewhat 
tedious to learn, and burdensome to observe, would 
have been highly acceptable to their converts. 3 - Hardly 
any restraint is so irksome to man (i. e. to " the natural 

a If the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, had been three times as 
long, and had consisted, not, as it does, of delineations of Christian dis- 
positions, but of a catalogue of minute directions for particular cases, 
it would doubtless have been more satisfactory to the hearers. But 
for some further remarks on our Lord's mode of conveying moral 
instruction, see Essay VIII. 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



103 



man") as to be left to his own discretion, yet still re- 
quired to regulate his conduct according to certain 
principles, and to steer his course through the intricate 
channels of life, with a constant vigilant exercise of his 
moral judgment. It is much more agreeable to human 
indolence (though at first sight the contrary might be 
supposed) to have a complete system of laws laid down, 
which are to be observed according to the letter, not to 
the spirit ; and which, as long as a man adheres to them, 
afford both a consolatory assurance of safety, and an 
unrestrained liberty as to every point not determined 
by them, than to be called upon for incessant watch- 
fulness, — careful and candid self-examination, — and 
studious cultivation of certain moral dispositions. 

Accordingly, most, if not all systems of man's de- 
vising (whether corruptions of Christianity, or built on 
any other foundation) will be found, even in what ap- 
pear their most rigid enactments, to be accommodated 
to this tendency of the human heart. "When ?>Iahomet, 
for instance, enjoined on his disciples a strict fast during 
a certain period, and an entire abstinence from wine 
and from games of chance, and the devotion of a precise 
portion of their property to the poor, leaving them at 
liberty, generally, to folic w their own sensual and 
worldly inclinations, he imposed a far less severe task 
on them than if he had required them constantly to 
control their appetites and passions, to repress covet- 
ousness, and to be uniformly temperate, charitable, and 
heavenly-minded. And had St. Paul been (as a false 
teacher always will be) disposed to comply with the 
expectations and wishes which his disciples would 
naturally form, he would doubtless have referred them 
to some part of the Mosaic law as their standard of 
morality, or would have substituted some other system 
of rules in its place. Indeed there is strong reason to 



104 ON THE ABOLITION" OF THE LAW- 



think, especially from what we find in 1st Corinthians, 
that something of this nature had actually been desired 
of him. He seems to have been applied to for more pre- 
cise rules than he was willing to give ; particularly as to 
the lawfulness of going to idol feasts, and as to several 
points relative to marriage and celibacy; concerning 
which, and other matters, he gives briefly such direc- 
tions as the occasion rendered indispensable, but breaks 
off into exhortations to 44 use this world as not abusing 
it;"' and speedily recurs to the general description of 
the Christian character, and the inculcation of Christian 
principles. He will not be induced to enter into minute 
details of things forbidden, and permitted, — enjoined 
and dispensed with ; and even when most occupied in 
repelling the suspicion that Gospel liberty exempts 
the Christian from moral obligation, instead of retaining 
or framing anew any system of prohibitions and injunc- 
tions, he urges upon his hearers the very consideration 
of their being exempt from any such childish trammels, 
as a reason for their aiming at a more perfect holiness 
of life, on purer and more generous motives : " Sin,'* 
he says, 44 shall not have dominion over you ; for ye 
are not under the law, but under grace:" and he per- 
petually incites them to walk " worthy of their voca- 
tion, 5 ' on the ground of their being 44 bought with a 
price," and bound to 44 live unto him who died for 
them;" — as 44 risen with Christ" to a new life of 
holiness, — exhorted to 44 set their affections on things 
above, not on things on the earth ;" — as 44 living sacri- 
fices" to God ; — -as 44 the temple of the Holy Ghost," 
called upon to keep God's dwelling-place undefiled, 
and to abound in all 44 the fruits of the Spirit ;" — and 
as 44 being delivered from the law, that we should serve 
in newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the 
letter." 



OX THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



105 



He who seeks then (as many are disposed to do,) 
either in the Old Testament or in the New, for a pre- 
cise code of laws by which to regulate his conduct, 
mistakes the character of our religion. It is indeed an 
error, and a ruinous one, to think that we may " continue 
in sin, because we are not under the law, but under 
grace ;" but it is also an error, and a far commoner one, 
to inquire of the Scriptures in each case that may occur, 
what we are strictly bound to do or to abstain from, 
and to feel secure as long as we transgress no distinct 
commandment. b But he who seeks with sincerity for 

b I am inclined to believe that one reason which makes some persons 
reluctant to acknowledge the total abolition of the Mosaic law, is the 
notion that the sanctity of the {: Christian Sabbath' 5 depends on 
the fourth commandment, and that, consequently, the reverence due to 
the Lord's day would be destroyed or impaired by our admitting the 
ten commandments to be no longer binding. That their authority over 
Christians is upheld by some who do not themselves believe it, but 
who think it right to inculcate or connive at that belief, from views of 
expediency — for fear of " unsettling the minds of the people," I have 
already remarked : but there are others, no doubt, who maintain it 
from their own conviction. Most of my readers must have seen or 
heard elaborate discourses, some of them from authors of no mean 
repute, on the hallowing of the Sabbath, which make scarcely any 
allusion, sometimes none at all, to the change of day from the seventh 
to the first, and which dwell entirely on the precepts, promises, and 
threats of the Old Testament, relative to the Sabbath ; applying all 
these to Christians. It seems hardly to have occurred to them, that if 
this principle be admitted in respect of the fourth commandment as 
well as the rest, they are acknowledging themselves M debtors to keep 
the whole law," ceremonial, as well as moral ; unless, indeed, they are 
prepared to acquiesce in the (to me utterly unintelligible) dogma of the 
" Assembly of Divines at Westminster," that the observance of the 
Sabbath is a part of the moral law ! On what other principle they can 
consistently claim exemption from the laws relative to abstinence from 
certain meats, and from blood, or, indeed, from any part of the Leviti- 
cal law, it is hard to understand. 

[The remainder of Dr. Whately's note is omitted. It consists of 
speculations in which, as a reviewer in the British Critic has well 



106 



ON THE ABOLITION OF THE LAW. 



Christian principles will not fail to find them : if we 
endeavor, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, to trace 
on our own heart the delineation of the Christian cha- 
racter which the Scriptures present, and to conform all 
our actions, and words, and thoughts, to that character, 
our heavenly Teacher will enable us to " have a right 
judgment in all things and we shall be "led by the 
Spirit" of Christ to follow His steps, and to " purify 
ourselves even as He is pure that " when He shall 
appear, we may be made like junto Him, and may be- 
hold him as He is." 

remarked, the author f; does something very like to that against which 
he has been perpetually admonishing all the readers of Scripture — con- 
siders the matter with too much artificial nicety and precision." We 
should conceive it scarcely possible, 55 continues the reviewer, "for a 
plain man to consult his Bible without feeling, on the whole, fully per- 
suaded that by desecrating the Lord's day he should be acting in 
opposition to the will of God, almost as clearly, though not so heinously,, 
as by practising idolatry, or committing murder. And if so, we cannot 
discern the wisdom of perplexing him with doubts whether this position 
can be exactly and logically made out in argument, — or of involving 
him in subtle disquisitions as to the precise grounds of an undoubted 
and acknowledged obligation. 55 

Dr. Whately explicitly admits the fact, so plainly recorded, that be- 
cause he rested from the work of creation on the seventh day God- hal- 
lowed the seventh day as" a period of rest for his creatures. Now 
neither in the reason for this act nor in the act itself, is there any thing 
susceptible of limitation within less bounds than those of the duration 
of this earth and the extension of the human race. As regards bothj 
the law is a part of the one law of God, universal and eternal. 
The Patriarchal dispensation had its modification, (Dr. Whately 
admits this to be "more probable than not ; :; ) the Mosaic dispensation 
another ; the Christian has a third : each modified in conformity to 
the progressive degrees of fight, and the differing characters of the 
several dispensations ; but all agreeing in the fundamental principle — - 
the devotion of a seventh part of man) s existence to rest from secular 
occupation for the purpose of its employment in more direct prepara- 
tion for eternity. — Editor.] 



ESSAY VI. 

ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS 



The importance of obtaining correct, and avoiding 
erroneous notions, respecting any point of doctrine, is 
not always to be measured by the intrinsic importance 
of the doctrine itself, or by the practical consequences 
immediately resulting from this or that view of it. No 
error can be considered as harmless and insignificant, 
which tends to put a stumbling-block in the way of 
believers in the Gospel, and to afford to infidels or 
heretics the advantage of a plausible objection against 
its truths. The genuine and fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity, may become liable to be scoffed at by 
some, and dreaded or disregarded by others, from their 
supposed connexion with such as are in fact no part of 
the Gospel revelation. It then becomes a matter of 
importance to rectify even those mistakes which are in 
themselves of no moment ; since we thus (to use once 
more the expression of Dr. Paley) " relieve Chris- 
tianity of a weight that sinks it." God forbid that the 
Christian should deny or explain away any thing that 
is a part of his faith, for the sake of moderating the 
hostility, or escaping the scorn that may be directed 
against it ; but as little is he authorized needlessly to 
expose his religion to that hostility or scorn, by main- 
taining or allowing to be maintained, as a part of the 
Christian revelation, any tenet (however intrinsically 
true) which the Scriptures do not warrant : the same 



108 ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

authority which forbids us to " diminish aught" from 
the word of God, forbids us also to " add thereto." 

That St. Paul's authority in particular has been ap- 
pealed to in support of several conclusions which are 
in fact not taught by him, I have already endeavored to 
show ; principally with a view to the removal of that 
dread or neglect of his writings which have too often 
been the result. 

§ 1. Another doctrine, or set of doctrines rather, 
there is, in support of which this apostle's authority is 
principally referred to, and which being (whether de- 
servedly or not) regarded by many with suspicion and 
alarm, or with disgust and contempt, has thus proved 
a source of objection, either to the Gospel scheme 
altogether, or to the teaching of St. Paul in particular, 
of which such tenets have been supposed to form a part. 
I allude to the doctrine of " imputed sin," and " imputed 
righteousness," as set forth by some writers, who repre- 
sent it as the very key-stone of the Christian system. 

I purposely abstain from referring to any authors in 
particular ; because the proper character of a calm 
inquiry after truth, is so liable to be lost in that of a 
controversy with some individual or party ; and the 
discussion of any question thus becomes, though more 
interesting perhaps to some minds, yet less edifying ; 
since, after all, the object ultimately proposed should 
be, not the confutation of this or that theologian, but 
the ascertainment of the genuine doctrines of our re- 
ligion ; which must rest, not on any merely human 
authority, but on that of the Holy Scriptures. 

The system at present in question, so far as I have 
been able to collect its import, may be briefly stated 
thus ; that when our first parents had fallen from their 
state of innocence, they transmitted to all their posterity 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



109 



(over and above the proneness to sin which, we are 
born with, and our liability to natural death,) the guilt 
also of the actual transgression committed by Adam : 
this being imputed to every one of his posterity ; for, 
it is said, he being the federal head or representative, 
of the whole human species, his act is considered as 
theirs to all intents and purposes ; and each descendant 
of Adam is considered by his Almighty Judge as actually 
guilty, from his birth, of the very sin of having eaten 
of the forbidden fruit ; and is, for that sin, sentenced 
not merely to undergo natural death, but also everlast- 
ing punishment in the next world, independently of any 
sins committed by himself. 

This is not indeed always the sense in which the im- 
putation of Adam's sin to his posterity, and their con- 
sequent punishment, are spoken of: there are some 
who understand by the expression, merely the for- 
feiture of immortality — the liability to temporal death ; 
though it is perhaps rather an incorrect use of lan- 
guage, to apply the term "punishment to the absence 
of that immortality which was never ours : the human 
race indeed, taken collectively, so as to include our 
first parents, may be said to have lost immortal life ; 
but each individual of their posterity, being born mor- 
tal, cannot, without great laxity of language, be said 
to be punished by being excluded from immortality. 

The doctrine, however, in the sense before stated, 
has been often expressly maintained, and much oftener 
indirectly implied, and assumed as indubitable. Then, 
to relieve mankind from this sentence, and to procure 
for them immortal happiness in heaven, our Saviour 
Christ, it is said, not only in his death offered up an 
effectual sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, — 
bearing in his own person the punishment due both to 
11 



110 ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the imputed transgression of Adam, and to the actual 
sins of men, — but also, during his abode on earth, per- 
formed for them those good works of perfect obedience 
to the law, both ceremonial, civil, and moral, which 
are imputed to true believers in him, and considered 
as theirs ; even as the transgression of Adam is imputed 
to all his natural descendants. Thus, and thus only, 
it is said, could the evil introduced by Adam's trans- 
gression be (as far as respects the adoptive children of 
God) effectually repaired: for as Adam was the repre- 
sentative of the whole human race, so that his sin is, 
by imputation, made theirs, and they, all and each, 
thus lay under the sentence of eternal punishment, so 
it was necessary that the obedience and personal holi- 
ness of Christ, who stands as the representative of his 
faithful servants, should be, in like manner, imputed 
to them, and thus give them a title to eternal happiness : 
that he should, in short, not only by his death undergo 
the punishment due to man from God, but also, in his 
life, fulfil the righteousness due to God from man ; in 
each instance, suffering and performing what he did, 
vicariously, — for, and in the stead of, his people ; who 
are thence regarded as having themselves both paid 
the penalty of sin, and also performed perfect obedience 
to the divine laws ; both having been accomplished by 
their substitute and representative. And some there 
are, who go so far as to maintain that as God imputes 
to believers the good works of Jesus Christ, and 
transfers to them the merit of his obedient life, so he 
also imputed to Jesus, at the time of his crucifixion, 
the actual guilt of those sins for which he suffered, and 
regarded him, for the time being, as the actual trans- 
gressor ; " bearing our sins" not only in respect of the 
penalty of them, but of their intrinsic guilt, and the 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



Ill 



divine wrath a against it. This, however, is not, I 
believe, held by all who maintain the imputation of 
Adam's sin, and of Christ's obedience. Some other 
slighter variations of statement are to be found, as 
might be expected, in the works of different authors ; 
but such, in the main, as I have described, is the system 
taught, not in abstruse theological disquisitions merely, 
but in several popular treatises and sermons ; and 
taught, as the very foundation of Christian faith ; of 
which, indeed, it must if true, form no insignificant 
part. 

That it is paradoxical,— remote from all we should 
naturally have expected, — and startling to our untutored 
feelings, cannot be questioned: this is, however, no 
reason why it may not be true ; or why, if true, we 
should shrink from receiving it ; since God's " ways 
are not as our ways," and since, incapable as we are 
of estimating his counsels, it is for us, not to question, 
but to receive, whatever he may have proposed to us. 
It is a reason, however, why we should inquire for, 
and expect, the more full and precise revelation on such 
a point. What is discoverable by unassisted human 
reason, we must not expect to find revealed at all in 
Scripture. Such things again as, though not discover* 
able by reason, are yet conformable to its suggestions, 
and contain no mysterious difficulty, — of these, we may 
receive satisfactory assurance even in a single passage, 
or in a few short hints; but any doctrine which, like 
that now in question, is wholly at variance with every 
notion we should naturally be led to form, we may be 
sure will be revealed, if revealed at all, in the fullest 

a There are many writers who never think of reminding their 
readers, and, indeed, appear to have themselves gradually learned to 
forget, that urath is attributed to the Deity only in a figurative, not 
a literal sense. — See King's Discourse on Predestination. 



112 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



and most decisive language. The doctrine, too, which 
I have been considering, must, if it belong to the Gospel 
scheme, be as important as it is mysterious : it must be 
the very key, as it were, to eternal happiness; since, 
according to this view, it is only through the obedience 
of Christ imputed to us, that we can have any claim 
or hope to be admitted to the glories of his heavenly 
kingdom. 

§ 2. It is not once or twice, therefore, — it is not 
obscurely or obliquely, — that we might expect to find 
St. Paul speaking to his converts of this imputed sin, 
and imputed obedience. As the foundation of salutary 
dread, and of consolatory hope, — as connected most 
intimately with every question relative to the punish- 
ments and rewards of the next world, — we might expect 
him to make the most explicit declarations respecting 
a point of such moment, — to dwell on it copiously and 
earnestly, — to recur to it in almost every page. Now 
when we proceed to the actual examination of Scripture^ 
do we find these most reasonable expectations con- 
firmed ? Far otherwise : it is not, perhaps, going too 
far, to say that the whole system is made to rest on 
a particular interpretation of one single text (Rom. v. 
19,) " As by one man's disobedience many were made 
sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
righteous." For though there are other passages which 
have been considered as alluding to and confirming the 
tenet in question, there is none that could, without 
great violence, be construed into an express declaration 
of it. 

The passage in question is one which we cannot 
reasonably hope to interpret aright, if we contemplate 
it as an insulated proposition ; — if we do not take into 
account the general tenor of St. PauPs teaching. Now, 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



113 



it is most important to observe, that frequent as are his 
allusions (as might be expected) to the Christian's re- 
demption, and acceptableness to God, through Christ ; 
the reference is made, throughout, to his death, — to his 
cross, — to his blood, — to his sufferings, — to his sacri- 
fice of himself, as the meritorious cause of our salvation ; 
not to the righteousness of his life imputed to believers ; 
the transfer of the merit of his good works. For in- 
stance, he hath reconciled us to God " in the body of 
his flesh through death :" " Being justified freely by 
his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, 
through faith in his blood:" 44 He hath brought us nigh 
to God, and made him at peace with us, through the 
blood of the cross:" 44 We are sanctified through the 
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ;" — 
besides numerous other passages to the same purpose. 
Frequent also as are the allusions to the pure and per- 
fect holiness of our Saviour's life, we nowhere find 
this spoken of as imputed to Christians, and made theirs 
by transfer of merit, but always as qualifying Him to 
be, on the one hand^ an example to Christians, and on 
the other, both the victim and the priest, of spotless 
purity; — as constituting him the true Lamb without 
blemish, — 44 the innocent blood," which 44 taketh away 
the sin of the world," because he who offered it had 
no need of atonement for himself. For instance, 44 how 
much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through 
the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, 
cleanse your bodies from dead works to serve the living 
God ?" 44 Such an High Priest became us, who is holy, 
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." In these 
and many other such passages, in which the personal 
holiness of Christ is spoken of, and spoken of, too, 
in reference to our salvation, it is not said that the 
11* 



114 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



obedience of Christ is imputed to us, and the merit 
of his good works transferred to us, (which we might 
surely have expected to find there mentioned, had it 
been designed to teach such a doctrine;) but, on the 
contrary, it seems rather to be implied that his obedience 
was imputed to Himself, as necessary to qualify him 
for the great sacrifice of atonement. 

And the language of Scripture on this point coincides 
with the most sound moral judgment ; which indicates 
that nothing short of a life of unsinning virtue could 
have made him, himself, acceptable and fit for his great 
office ; that, in short, it behoved him "to fulfil all 
righteousness," in order that he might be a spotless 
victim, and an undefiled priest : that in suffering indeed 
an accursed death, he did more than could be required 
of an innocent person on his own account ; and that, 
therefore, he died, " the just for the unjust but that 
his being just, — the perfect obedience of his life could 
not be more than requisite to constitute him perfect as 
a man. I speak, of course, of his obedient life in 
reference to his human nature alone; in respect of which 
he always declared, " My Father is greater than I 
to speak of his obedience considered as a divine person, 
would be at least approaching very near to the Arian 
doctrine ; b since all obedience necessarily implies a 
superior. 

b There is, I fear, in many Christians a strong habitual leaning of 
the mind to this view of the Scripture doctrines j though they are 
unconscious of it from their having formally condemned Arianism 
and distinctly asserted the equality of the Son and the Holy Spirit 
with the Father : forgetting that this is no security against a tinge 
being given to their ordinary course of thought on the subject, — -a 
tendency practically to contemplate three distinct Divine Beings, the 
second inferior to the first, and the third to both. That it is possible 
for men to become something very near indeed to Arianism without 
knowing it, we have a curious instance in ecclesiastical history. In 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS, 



115 



Surely, then, when we read that " by the obedience 
of (the) one, many (the many) shall be made (or con- 
stituted, — xaraflVa^tfovrca) "righteous," the presump- 
tion is strongly in favor of such an interpretation as 
shall accord with the declaration that we are "justi- 
fied by his blood." Now such an interpretation is not 
only allowable, but is even, I may say, suggested by 
the apostle himself in another passage, in which, speak- 
ing of Christ's death, he uses the very corresponding 
word to (vrfaxori) " obedience" in this place : Christ, 
he says, "became obedient (vtfyxoog) to death, even 



the early stages of Arianism, a confession of faith was agreed upon * 
which was satisfactory to all parties, till, some time after, the Arians 
began to boast of their triumph, and to point out the sanction which 
the formula adopted gave to their doctrine ; and then " the Church," 
says Jerome, " marvelled to find itself unexpectedly become Arian." 
Something of the same kind, on a smaller scale, took place very 
recently among ourselves. The discovery of Milton's system of theo- 
logy, startled many persons by its avowed Arianism, who had been 
accustomed to commend his poems for their sound theology ; though 
they convey the very same views, stated almost as plainly as, in a 
poem, they could be. 

These instances are amply sufficient to prove, at the very least, such 
a possibility as I have alluded to. 

Probably, indeed, the whole doctrine of justification through the 
righteousness of Christ imputed to believers, may be traced in a great 
degree to these semi-arian views. Men are apt to conclude that the 
" righteousness of Christ" must denote something distinct from the 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, bringing forth fruit unto holiness ; 
because they fear to confound together what they habitually, though 
unconsciously, consider two different agents. Whereas Scripture, if 
they would submit to be implicitly led by it, promises that Christ will 
come unto his servants and "make his abode with them;" — that 
t c hereby know we that he (Christ) dwelleth in us, by his Spirit which 
he hath given us;" and that "the Lord is the (not "that" as our 
translation has it) Spirit." 



* At Rimini, A. I). 360. 



116 ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the death of the cross." His death, indeed, is more 
than once referred to in this point of view ; namely, as 
a part, and as the great and consummating act of that 
submissive and entire obedience which he rendered 
throughout to his Father's will : for instance, in our 
Lord's own words just before he suffered, " not my 
will, but thine be done :" " Lo, I come to do thy will, 
O God ;" " when He suffered, He threatened not, but 
submitted Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." 

Then, with respect to the imputation of Adam's sin 
to his descendants, it might, as I have said, be expected 
that if true, it would be frequently and fully set forth. 
But at any rate, it could hardly fail to be mentioned on 
those occasions where the apostle is occupied in proving, 
and insisting on, the universal necessity of a Redeemer, 
and the inevitable ruin of mankind without an atoning 
sacrifice. Now this plainly is his object in the opening 
of this very Epistle, (to the Romans,) which is generally 
regarded as the most systematic of all that he wrote. 
What then is St. Paul's procedure ? He dwells at large 
on the actual sins of men ; he gives a copious and 
shocking detail of the enormities of the Gentile world, 
into which they had plunged in defiance of their own 
natural conscience : and then expatiates on the sins of 
which the Jews had been guilty in violation of the law 
in which they trusted. How needless w r ould all this 
have been for one who maintained the doctrine of im- 
puted sin ! No one, indeed, denies that men do commit 
actual sin ; but the hypothesis I have been speaking of 
would have cut the argument short : on that supposi- 
tion it would have been sufficient to say at once, that 
Adam's transgression being imputed to all his posterity, 
so that they are all regarded as guilty of his act, they 
must be in consequence, whether sinful or innocent, — 
whether more or less sinful, in their own persons, 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 117 

doomed to eternal perdition, unless redeemed from this 
imputed guilt. Nor does the passage I have appealed 
to, stand alone in this respect. Numerous as are the 
denunciations of divine judgment against sin, all concur 
in making the reference not to the imputed sin of our 
first parents, but to the actual sins of men : none of them 
warrants the conclusion that any one is liable to punish- 
ment (I mean in the next world) for any one's sins but 
his own. 

§ 3. It should be observed also, that there is an espe- 
cial reason for interpreting that part of the epistle I 
have been alluding to c by reference to other parts of 
Scripture : which is, that it is not St. Paul's object, in 
this place, to declare or establish the doctrine of original 
sin, and of our deliverance from its consequences by 
Christ our Saviour. It is plain from the context that 
these points are established only incidentally ; the main 
drift of his argument being to set forth the universality 
of the redemption, — as being co-extensive with the evil 
introduced at the fall, which it was designed to remedy. 
The Jewish converts, to whom he seems to be princi- 
pally addressing himself, were disposed, by their ancient 
national prejudices, to limit the benefits of the Messiah's 
advent to their own people : the great and revolting 
mystery to them, was, 44 that the Gentiles should be 
fellow-heirs :" in opposition to which exclusive spirit, 
he infers the universal redemption accomplished by 
Christ, from the universality of that loss and corrup- 
tion which He undertook to repair : 44 as in Adam 
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive :" 
44 as by one man's disobedience many (the many, i. e. 
all were made (or constituted, xarstfra^aVxv,) sinners, 



c Romans v, 19. 



118 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



even so by the obedience of the one shall the many," 
(i. e. not the Jews only, but the whole race of mankind, 
as many as believe) " be made righteous." Now there 
is no doubt that such an oblique allusion to any doc- 
trine does not only establish it, but establish it even 
more decidedly than an express assertion ; since it im- 
plies that it is a known and undisputed truth : but still 
the difference between the two cases is not unimportant ; 
we are not to look for the same full and clear exposi- 
tion of any point of faith in those passages where it is 
merely alluded to incidentally, as in those wherein the 
obje'ct is to declare and explain it. And some passage, 
in which it is the direct object to reveal and inculcate 
the doctrine now in question, would doubtless have 
been appealed to by its advocates, had any such pas- 
sage existed. But fundamentally important as this 
truth must be, if it be a truth, no portion of Scripture 
can be found whose immediate and primary design is to 
declare it. The sinfulness of human nature is, indeed, 
abundantly set forth; but not the imputation to one 
man of the actual transgression committed by another; 
our salvation through Christ is earnestly dwelt on ; 
but it is " through faith in his blood." Nay, there is 
mention made of imputation and non-imputation ; but 
not of one man's act or desert to another. God is 
spoken of as " not imputing to men their trespasses," 
(which by the way would amount to nothing, if He still 
imputed to them the trespasses of another ;) and we are 
told, b< faith (our own) shall be imputed to us for right- 
eousness." 

And this should teach us how to interpret the passages 
in which we are said to be made " the righteousness 
of God in Christ," and He, to be M made sin for us :" 
viz. not that He was considered in the sight of God as 
actually sinful, but that He was made a " sin-offering" 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



119 



for us ; (afxapria, which is, literally, 44 sin," being com- 
monly used by the LXX. in the sense of a sin-offering ;) 
and again, when we are said to be made righteous 
through his 44 obedience unto death," — and to be 44 made 
the righteousness of God in Him ;" and He again is 
said to be 44 made of God unto us wisdom, and right- 
eousness, and sanctiflcation, and redemption," it is not 
meant that there is an imputation to believers of the 
righteousness of Christ's life, as if it were theirs, any 
more than that the wisdom of Christ is imputed to 
them, or the redemption which He effected is regarded 
as effected by them ; but that He purchased by the 
sacrifice of Himself all these benefits for men ; for 
those, i, e. who should by faith be admitted to be parta- 
kers of them ; — that when He had been 44 delivered for 
our sins, He rose again for our justification ;" L e. 44 as- 
cended up on high, and received gifts for men, that the 
Lord God might dwell among them :" viz. that his 
Holy Spirit, whose temple we are, might reside in, 
and sanctify our hearts, and impart to us wisdom and 
righteousness, to be practically displayed in our lives. 
And since without this holy guidance our own feeble 
and depraved nature could never bring forth what the 
apostle calls 44 the fruits of the Spirit," nor follow the 
steps of Christ, this may w r ell be called the 44 right- 
eousness of Christ," or the 44 righteousness of God in 
Christ ;" for 44 if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, he is none of his :" 44 if any man keep my 
saying, my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him and make our abode in him." 44 Little child- 
ren," says St. John, 44 let no man deceive you; he 
that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is 
righteous." 44 They that are Christ's," says St. Paul, 
44 have crucified the flesh w T ith the affections and lusts ;" 
44 if we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit." 



120 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



" If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the 
flesh, ye shall live ; for as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 

§ 4. From the consideration then of these passages of 
Scripture which have been adduced, as well as of many 
more to the same purpose which might be appealed to 
if needful, I cannot but conclude that that system of 
imputed sin and righteousness which I have been con- 
sidering, is altogether fanciful and groundless. It has^ 
indeed, at first sight, a sort of compactness, coherency, 
and consistency of parts, w T hich gives it, till closely 
scrutinized, an air of plausibility ; but this very circum- 
stance should in every case put us the more carefully 
on our guard ; for there is no more common error in 
many departments of study, and especially in theology, 
than the prevalence of a love of system over the love of 
truth. Men are often so much captivated by the aspect 
of a regular, beautiful, and well-connected theory, as to 
adopt it hastily without inquiring, in the outset, how 
far it is conformable to facts or to Scriptural authority ; 
and thus, often on one or two passages of Scripture, 
have built up an ingenious and consistent scheme, of 
which the far greater part is a tissue of their own rea- 
sonings and conjectures. 

The whole subject indeed of justification has been 
involved in great, and, I cannot but think, needless 
perplexity, by the practice formerly alluded to (Essay 
III.) of first affixing (which may now be allowable 3 ) a 



d Perhaps, however, it would have been better if, from the very first, 
no Scriptural terms had been introduced into systems of theology. 
Some have objected to the word " Trinity,' 5 and a few others, on the 
ground that they are not found in Scripture : this appears to me their 
chief recommendation ; since in this case all danger is effectually avoid- 
ed of misinterpreting Scripture in the way I am describing. As it is, 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



121 



strict technical sense to each of the principal words that 
have been employed in Scripture, and then interpreting 
the word, whenever it is found in the sacred writers 
themselves, according to such precise definition ; in- 
stead of regarding their works as popular, not scientific, 
and seeking for the meaning of their expressions, in 
each case, from the context. 

Thus, in the present instance, if three or four perhaps 
of those who are accounted sound divines, should be 
consulted as to the doctrine of justification, it is not un- 
likely they would give as many different accounts of it. 
All would agree as to the importance of the doctrine : 
but some perhaps would lay down two justifications, 
others only one ; and among these there would be 
found great discrepancies ; and yet all probably w 7 ould 
be found, in their general views of the Christian scheme, 
to arrive at nearly the same practical results. It is 
hardly to be supposed, indeed, that there can be so much 
difficulty (to the unlearned, impossibility) as this dis- 
crepancy w^ould seem to imply, in ascertaining from 
Scripture, " what we must do to be saved." And is there 
not therefore ground to suspect that many divines have 
been unconsciously involved in embarrassing disputes 
about words, from expecting in the sacred writers a 
more scientific accuracy and uniformity of language 
than they ever aimed at ? 

When one of the apostles speaks to men of the con* 
demnation for sin, from which they were to seek a way 
to escape, he naturally uses the word o^xcuw^vcu, to 
be 44 justified," in the sense of acquittal ; — their " not 
having their trespasses imputed to them." (Acts xiii. 
38, 39. Romans iii. 25. Romans v. 9.) When again 
he alludes to the defilement of sin, analogous to the 

one of our best safeguards against this danger would be, to vary from 
time to time the language of our expositions of Scripture doctrines. 
12 



122 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



ceremonial impurities, which under the Levitical law, 
excluded men from partaking of its sacred ordinances, 
he as naturally uses "justified," to signify their being 
accounted clean, — regarded as God's holy people, and 
admitted without profanation to approach Him, in the 
spiritual service of the new covenant. (Rom, v. 1, 2.) 
When again the Jews prided themselves on their law, 
as their guide to a moral and religious life, and as 
" justifying," that is, making' men good, and fit to ob- 
tain heavenly rewards, he sets forth the vainness of 
that expectation ; since, even if the law had had the 
44 better hope" of the Gospel, — the sanction of eternal 
rewards, — still, it could not justify those who had not 
strictly obeyed all its precepts ; which man, left to his 
natural strength, had never fully accomplished ; (Ro- 
mans ii. 25, and vii. 22, 23 ;) insisting, that we are to be 
justified, that is, made good men, through faith in 
Christ, which admits us to a participation of his Spirit, 
(Romans v. 12,) even the Spirit which " helpeth our 
infirmities," (Romans viii. 26,) and 44 worketh in us 
both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Hence 
he speaks of Christ as being 44 delivered for our sins, 
and rising again for our justification ;" (Romans iv. 25, 
and vi. 4 ;) that is, that when He " ascended up on 
high, He received gifts for men," namely, 44 that the 
Lord God might dwell among them." Hence also he 
occasionally speaks of the " law of faith ;" and univer- 
sally contrasts, not (as many are apt to suppose) good 
works with faith, but faith with the Mosaic law ; as 
leading more effectually to good works, (Romans viii. 
4. 11, 12, 13, and Titus iii. 5, and 1 Corinthians vi. 
11,) by obtaining for us the aid of the Holy Spirit, of 
which they are the fruits. The chief cause indeed of 
St. Paul's giving so prominent a place to the word 
44 justification," may be found in the peculiar circum- 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



123 



stances under which he preached ; especially when 
addressing the Jews, and those infected with their pre- 
judices ; who were always hoping to be justified by the 
law, (imperfectly as they observed it.) that is, made at 
least sufficiently righteous to inherit the rewards of a 
future life. 6 

§ 5. It may be said, however, that the system which 
has been treated of in this Essay, is, even if unsound, 
not practically dangerous, and, therefore, not one which 
needs to be refuted. That it has been held by pious 
and worthy men, I am well aware ; nor would I con- 
tend that it had any tendency to make them otherwise, 
and that their notions on this point were inconsistent 
with their religious and moral characters. But it would 
be rash to conclude thence, that their error, if it be 
one, must be altogether harmless. Nothing is harmless 
which may put a stumbling-block in the path of any 
sincere Christian : nothing is harmless that tends to 
give an undue advantage to unbelievers, — to disgust 
some with what they are told is the orthodox faith, and 
so furnish others with objections against it, by inserting 
doctrines which the Scriptures do not warrant ; — nothing 
is harmless that leads to a depreciation, a dread, or a 
neglect of the divine instructions of St. Paul. And 
such is most remarkably the case in respect of the 
system I have now been considering. It is a favorite 
point of attack to the infidel, and especially the Socinian : 
who pretend, and probably believe themselves, to have 
exposed to contempt the great doctrines of the atone- 
ment and the divinity of Christ, by exposing the 
chimerical pretensions of doctrines which are taught 
in conjunction with these, and represented as parts of 



e See note ( b ) page 114. 



124 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



the same system. And in others, the too-prevailing 
neglect of St. Paul's writings, as neither intelligible, 
nor safe, nor a profitable study to any but theologians 
of the most profound learning and wisdom, is fostered, 
by attributing to him doctrines more likely to bewilder 
and mislead, than to be applicable to any practical 
benefit. Mysterious, no doubt, it is that the sacrifice 
of " the innocent blood" should be accepted as an atone- 
ment for sin ; but in this case we know that the sacrifice 
was voluntary; — "I lay down my life; no man taketh 
it from me, but I lay it down of myself." Christ, of 
his own accord, offered his life as " a ransom for many ;" 
but when we are told of eternal punishment denounced 
against men for the actual sin of Adam, and this, not by 
their own voluntary choice, or by any act of their own, 
but by the absolute decree of the Almighty Judge, our 
ideas of the Divine justice, whether drawn from reason 
or from Scripture, cannot but be shocked. When 
again we find Christ spoken of as suffering for us and 
in our stead, so that " by his stripes we are healed," 
though we cannot comprehend, indeed, this act of 
mysterious mercy, we do comprehend that " there is 
now, therefore, no condemnation for them that are in 
Christ Jesus," but that his suffering in our stead 
exempts his faithful followers from suffering in their 
own persons. But when men are told that the right- 
eousness of Christ's life is imputed to believers, and 
considered as their merit, they are startled at the want 
of correspondence of this doctrine with the former, and 
its apparent inconsistency with the injunctions laid 
upon us to "bring forth the fruits of the Spirit" unto 
everlasting salvation ; because " God worketh in us 
both to will and to do of his good pleasure," while we 
are told that Christ has already fulfilled all moral 
obligations in our stead. The Antinomian system is 



ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



125 



unhappily the only one which surmounts this incon- 
gruity ; and its advocates accordingly have availed 
themselves of the advantage : — Since, say they, Christ 
suffered for us, and in our stead, so as to exempt us 
from suffering ourselves, by parity of reasoning, the 
good works which he performed, — the personal holi- 
ness he possessed, — being imputed to us, as performed 
for us, and in our stead, must, in like manner, exempt 
us from any such performance of our own. 

I do not, however, mean to contend that the gene- 
rality of those who maintain the system in question are 
tainted, or are even in danger of tainting the minds of 
others, with the Antinomian heresy. It is enough to 
say, that if they bring St. Paul's writings into disrepute 
or disuse, by attributing to him, without sufficient 
grounds, doctrines which appear to lead to such per- 
nicious consequences, they are answerable for the evil 
thence resulting. Whenever we teach for Gospel truths 
any thing which the Gospel does not warrant, we are 
answerable for the effects produced, not only on those 
who adopt our opinions, but also on those who dissent 
from them. 

Let St. Paul, as well as the rest of the sacred writers, 
be studied with diligence and candor, and without any 
bias in favor of an ingenious and consistent theory, 
the offspring of our own speculations ; let the student 
" prove all things, and hold fast that which is right ;" 
and to this end, let him observe the wise maxim of 
admitting no conclusion which is not, itself, as well as 
the premises it is drawn from, agreeable to the word of 
God : and let the general tenor of each work in par- 
ticular, and of the Scriptures in general, be carefully 
attended to, instead of dwelling exclusively on detached 
pas sages ; and then we may boldly and constantly main- 
12* 



126 ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

tain every doctrine which we find to be really revealed, 
however mysterious, or however unacceptable. 

We are, in reality, not preaching the Gospel, unless 
we both preach the whole Gospel, and, likewise, nothing 
but the Gospel ; nor can we hope for St. Paul's con- 
solatory trust of being " pure from the blood of all 
men," unless, like him, we declare to men "all the 
counsel of God," and (as a part of the Christian faith) 
nothing but " the counsel of God." 



ESSAY VII 



ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS IN SCRIPTURE 



§ 1. It has been above remarked (Essay II.) that the 
expression of St. Peter relative to the " things hard to 
be understood/' in St. Paul's writings, has been em- 
ployed to furnish an excuse at least, if not a reason, for 
neglecting and keeping out of sight those writings ; as 
being, to the generality of Christians, both too abstruse 
to be studied with any profit, and too liable to perver- 
sion to be approached with safety. And the principle 
of avoiding altogether whatever is hard to be understood, 
or liable to be wrested to a destructive purpose, naturally 
extends itself, as indeed the passage in question cannot 
but seem to warrant, to Gther parts of Scripture as well 
as to St. Paul's epistles ; till the result ensues of an 
exclusive attention to certain narratives of fact and plain 
moral precepts ; while all that relates to the peculiar 
doctrines of Christianity, is left, as matter of mere 
speculative inquiry, in the hands of learned theologians. 

Of the precise extent of such an error, no one indi- 
vidual can be an adequate judge ; but that it is not 
imaginary — that it does prevail to a considerable degree 
— is a conclusion which I am convinced no one will 
doubt who has made extensive and careful observa- 
tions. Indeed there is in the human mind a kind of 
indolence which tends to produce this consequence. 
The remark of the intelligent historian of Greece, will 



128 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 

remain as true as ever while human nature continues 
the same ; that " the generality of men are averse to 
labor in the investigation of truth, and ready rather to 
acquiesce in what is set before them." The Church of 
Rome only took advantage of what she could not have 
created, this disposition of the many to leave the task 
of searching the Scriptures to the learned few, — to let 
them acquire knowledge, instead of themselves, — and 
to acquiesce without inquiry in whatever these should 
promulgate. The Roman Catholic Clergy were thence 
looked to, not as leaders and assistants to the laity in 
the study of Scripture, but as their substitutes ; and the 
word of God became, in consequence, a prohibited 
book to the great body of Christians ; who were thus 
left to the guidance of men often themselves ignorant 
of Scripture, but whose ignorance the others had lost 
the means of detecting. This state of things, however, 
no priestcraft could have brought about, had not the 
dread of laborious investigation prepared the way for it. a 

That there are difficulties in many parts of Scripture 
— as great perhaps in c; St. Paul's writings as in any, — 
and that there is consequent danger of mischievous 
perversion, is undeniable ; and is indeed what analogy 
would prepare us to expect : for if the Scriptures could 
be properly understood without any trouble, and were 
incapable of perversion to bad purposes, they would 
be extremely unlike the rest of God's gifts. 

But the difficulties of Scripture, as well as the danger 
of misinterpreting it, are evidently an additional reason 
for diligence in the study of it. And St. Peter's implied 
censure of those who are unlearned (that is, ill ac- 



a I have treated of this subject more at large in a Sermon on the 
Christian Priesthood, subjoined to the second Edition of the Bampton 
Lectures. 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



129 



quainted with the religion of Jesus Christ) and (as will 
naturally follow) unstable, and likely to be blown about 
with every wind of doctrine, should operate as a cau- 
tion, not against the study of the Scriptures, but against 
the faults which would lead us to wrest them to our 
destruction. 

To examine into all the difficulties of Scripture, even 
of St. Paul's writings alone, would be a task to which 
perhaps the whole life of any single individual would 
be scarcely adequate : to lay down all the rules that 
might be applicable in such a task, would far exceed 
my present limits; but it may be worth while to offer 
a few remarks on some of the most important, and, at 
the same time, most commonly overlooked, of those 
principles which should be kept in view in the study 
of the doctrinal parts of Scripture ; and the neglect of 
which has aggravated, if not produced, many of the 
difficulties complained of, (in St. Paul's writings espe- 
cially,) and has led, in many instances, to perplexity, 
if not to error. 

§ 2. — 1. It is evidently of great importance, with a 
view to the right interpretation of any author, to con- 
sider, and to understand fully, his general drift and 
design. If we are mistaken in this point, the utmost 
diligence and the utmost ingenuity may "sometimes 
answer no other purpose than to lead us the further 
astray. Now it is, I conceive, not uncommon to con- 
sider revelation as designed, in part, to convey to us 
speculative truths ; — to increase our knowledge con- 
cerning divine things as they are in their own intrinsic 
nature ; — in short, to teach us not merely religion pro- 
perly so called, (that is, the relations between God and 
man,) but also what may be styled theological philoso- 
phy, — a certain branch of abstract science. All men, 



130 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 

it is true, acknowledge revelation to have a practical 
purpose : but it is conceivable that this might still be the 
case, though it were not confined to such purposes ; — 
it might, conceivably, propose to our belief, both 
practical truths, and speculative truths also, distinct 
from each other; and such a notion of the Christian 
revelation, may, without being distinctly avowed, be 
nevertheless practically entertained and acted upon. 

(2.) Nearly allied to, and resulting from, such a view 
of the Scriptures, viz. as being, more or less, of the 
nature of a philosophical system, is the expectation 
(before alluded to) of finding in them a regular tech- 
nical vocabulary ; — a set of terms confined, each to its 
own appropriate sense, in which it shall be uniformly 
and precisely employed. This might indeed take place 
in a purely practical system ; but in any case where 
speculative scientific truth was the object, it would be 
altogether requisite ; and the more the Scriptures are 
viewed in this light, the more the student will be dis- 
posed to regard each word and phrase as bearing 
throughout a fixed and peculiar sense ; just as might be 
expected in a creed, — catechism, — -system of articles, 
code of ethics, or any such composition. 

(3.) In any scientific treatise, employing its own ap- 
propriate technical terms, any single detached passage 
will usually be sufficiently intelligible, to one who is 
familiar with the definition of those terms. It may, 
indeed, need others to establish its truth, or to be com- 
bined with it for the proof of ulterior truths ; but not, 
to ascertain its meaning. In proportion, therefore, as 
the Scriptures are regarded as approaching to the 
character of a philosophical system, furnished with a 
regular technical phraseology, in the same degree will 
the student be disposed to build conclusions on insu- 
lated passages, without thinking it necessary in every 



IN SCRIPTURE, 



131 



instance to refer to the context, and to explain one 
part of Scripture by others. 

(4.) Lastly, one who has been accustomed to take in 
any degree such a view of Scripture as I have been 
describing, (and there are many who are disposed to 
do so, though without acknowledging it, even to then> 
selves,) will, of course, when they meet with passages 
which seem at variance w r ith each other, be inclined 
(if, indeed, they are not absolutely driven into doubts 
as to the truth of some portion of Scripture) to regard 
these merely in the light of difficulties designed for the 
trial of their faith; which they must surmount as well 
as they can, by explaining away such texts as are most 
adverse to their own conclusions ; while they dwell on 
every one that favors them ; softening down, if I may 
so speak, by their interpretation, every other part of 
Scripture, into a conformity with the hypothesis which 
they have built on some selected portion. 

It is true, indeed, that no one ever professed a design 
of studying Scripture on such a plan as has been de- 
scribed ; but it is no less true that many have at all 
times evinced, in various degrees, a tendency to slide 
into it insensibly ;— that to these causes, in great mea- 
sure, may be traced almost all the erroneous systems 
of faith which have at various times prevailed ; — and 
that many of the difficulties complained of, especially 
the discrepancies between the several parts of Scripture, 
and particularly between St. Paul and the other sacred 
writers, have been either produced or greatly aggra- 
vated by this mistaken mode of studying the sacred 
records. 

That the Scriptures contain nothing like a philoso- 
phical system, set forth in technical phraseology, and 
that we must not expect to understand them by con- 
fining our attention to certain insulated passages, and 



132 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 



disregarding or explaining away the rest, but must 
interpret each by the context, and from the rest of 
Scripture— these maxims appear so obvious when dis- 
tinctly stated, that we are apt to be the less sensible, 
what vigilant care is requisite in order to conform to 
them steadily in practice. It may be allowable, there- 
fore, to offer some brief remarks on each of the points 
that have been just alluded to. 

§ 3. — 1. That the natural desire of knowledge for its 
own sake, tends to influence men's judgment respecting 
a divine revelation, in which they are apt to seek, not 
merely practical truths, but the gratification of specu- 
lative curiosity, I have elsewhere taken occasion to 
remark. b All pretended revelations accordingly, and 
legendary tales of saints, — all the disquisitions con- 
cerning things divine, of the Heathen philosophers, and, 
I fear we may add, of some Christian theologians, 
however otherwise different, concur in this, that they 
relate in great measure, if not exclusively, to the nature 
and attributes and works of the Supreme Being as He 
is in Himself; — to the real state of things in the invisi- 
ble world, however unconnected with human conduct : 
while our revelation is characterised, as I there ob- 
served, by abstaining from speculative points, — by 
refusing to gratify mere curiosity, — by teaching, in 
short, not philosophy, but what is properly called 
religion, — the knowledge, i. e. of the relations between 
God and man, and of the practical truths thence 
resulting. 

Those, therefore, are not likely to interpret Scrip- 
ture rightly, who are not content with relative truths, 
but seek to ascertain, in each instance, the real state 



* Essays on some of the Peculiarities of the Gospel. Essay IV, 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



133 



of things ; the knowledge of which, in many cases 
probably, could not be imparted to us with our present 
faculties ; and is often withheld, where it might. Such 
a student is likely to mistake the sense of the sacred 
writers, from not judging aright what kind of instruction 
it is that they design to impart ; his religious notions 
are "spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, after 
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, 
and not after Christ." And from such a view of the 
Scriptures, the conclusion that the doctrinal parts of 
them are unnecessary, unprofitable, and unsafe, to the 
great mass of Christians, will be the natural result. 
Both the learned and the unlearned will agree in taking 
this view of the Scripture doctrines; the presumptuous 
inquiries of the one class, have a direct tendency to 
sanction and foster the indolent indifference of the 
other. 

2. And as nothing was further from the design of 
St. Paul and the other sacred writers, than to frame a 
philosophical system, so, they aimed at no philosophical 

c The sense of the term " mystery,' 5 as employed by the sacred 
writers, is very commonly mistaken ; and the mistake has been a 
source of much error. — See Parkhtjrst's Lexicon to the New Testa- 
ment, on the word Mvarrjpiov. 

The ancient Heathen had certain sacred rites, in which were dis- 
closed, to those " initiated," certain secrets, which were carefully to be 
kept concealed from the uninitiated Qfivrjrot,) the great mass of the 
professors of the religion. St. Paul naturally makes allusion to these, 
by the use of the word "mystery," to denote those designs of God's 
providence, and those doctrinal truths, which had been kept concealed 
from mankind " till the fulness of time" was come, " but now were 
made manifest" to believers. And he frequently adverts to one im 
portant circumstance in the Christian mysteries, which distinguishes 
them from those of paganism, viz. that while these last were revealed 
only to a chosen few, the Gospel mysteries, on the contrary, were made 
known to all who would listen to and obey the truth ; whether Jew 
or Gentile, bond or free, Barbarian or Greek. All Christians were 

13 



134 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 



regularity of language : their writings, as I have before 
remarked, were popular, not scientific ; they expressed 
their meaning on each occasion, in the words which on 
each occasion, suggested themselves as best fitted to 
convey it to readers of plain understanding ; and these 
terms are to be understood, though not indeed always 
in their ordinary sense, yet, on the other hand, not 
according to any precise scientific definition, but each 
with reference to the context of the place where it is 
found. 

3. And again, it is this popular and unsystematic 
character of the sacred writings that makes it the more 
unsafe to dwell on detached portions of them, instead 

"initiated" (ovjiftfcrwj as one of the ancient Fathers calls them,) and 
those only remained in darkness who wilfully shut their eyes : "if 
our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whom the prince of 
this world hath blinded." 

Now our ordinary use of the word "mystery" conveys the notion 
of something that we cannot understand at all, and which it is fruitless 
to inquire into. I am not censuring this use of the word ; but if we 
interpret according to our own usage an author who employs it dif- 
ferently, it is plain we shall be misled. Both we and the sacred writers, 
indeed, understand by the word, something hidden from one party and 
known to another, (for we suppose all mysteries to be known to God ;) 
but there is this difference ; that we use the word in reference to the 
party from whom the knowledge is withheld ; St. Paul, in reference 
to those to whom the knowledge is revealed. Such an expression 
as, " this is a mystery to us," conveys to us the idea that it is something 
we do not and cannot understand ; to St. Paul it would convey the 
idea that it is something which "now is made manifest, 5 ' and which 
we are, therefore, called upon to contemplate and study ; even as his 
office was "to make known the mystery of the Gospel." 5 Not that he 
meant to imply that we are able fully to understand the divine dis- 
pensations ; but it is not in reference to this their inscrutable character 
that he calls them "mysteries, 55 but the reverse ; they are reckoned 
by him :! mysteries/ 5 not so far forth as they are hidden and unintelli- 
gible, but so far forth as they are revealed and explained. 

For another use of " mystery. 55 to signify a symbolical representa- 
tion, See Parkhurst. 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



135 



of comparing each part of Scripture with the rest. Not 
merely incomplete knowledge, but actual error, will 
often be the result ; because it will often happen (as 
might be expected in an unscientific discourse) that the 
author has in view, in some particular passage, not the 
full development of any truth, but the correction of 
some particular mistake, — the inculcation of some par- 
ticular caution, — or the enforcement of some particular 
portion of a doctrine or precept ; so that such a pas- 
sage, contemplated by itself, would tend to partial, and 
consequently, erroneous views. 

4. And as it is hence necessary to call in the aid of 
different parts of Scripture for the interpretation of 
each other, so, those which appear the most at vari- 
ance with each other,— which if taken singly, and 
strictly interpreted, would contradict each other, — are, 
for that very reason, the most important to be brought 
together and contemplated in connexion. The seeming 
contradictions in Scripture are too numerous not to be 
the result of design ; and doubtless were designed, not 
as mere difficulties to try our faith and patience, but as 
furnishing the most suitable mode of instruction that 
could have been devised, by mutually explaining, and 
modifying or limiting, or extending, one another's 
meaning. By this means we are furnished, in some 
degree, with a test of the truth or falsity of our conclu- 
sions : as long as the appearance of mutual contradic- 
tion remains, we may be sure that we are wrong : — 
when we can fairly and without violence d reconcile 
passages of opposite tendencies, we may entertain a 
hope that we are right. Such must be the procedure 
of the candid inquirer after truth ; and by which, through 
divine help, he may hope to attain it, Those whose 



d See Pascal's Thoughts, XIII. 1*2. 



136 



ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 



object is to find arguments in support of a favorite 
hypothesis built on a partial view of Scripture, will 
often be no less successful in their object ; — in finding 
texts that will serve to give plausibility to their own 
system, and to perplex an opponent. But that oppo- 
nent will usually have exactly the same advantages on 
his side also ; each party having apparently some por- 
tion of Scripture favorable to his scheme, and others 
which he can hardly reconcile with it ; and both parties 
perhaps being equally remote from the truth, and guilty 
of the very same error as to their mode of interpreting 
Scripture. 

§ 4. That the apparent contradictions of Scripture 
are numerous, — that the instruction conveyed by them, 
if they be indeed designed for such a purpose, is fur- 
nished in abundance, — is too notorious to need being 
much insisted on. 

We are told that God " repented of having made man 
upon the earth," — that He " repented of having made 
Saul King over Israel," — that " He repenteth Him of 
the evil ;" and again, that " He is not the son of man 
that He should repent ;" and that " in Him is no varia- 
bleness nor shadow of turning." We are told that 
"whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ;" yet 
again, by the very same author, that " if we say that 
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." We read in 
St. Paul, that Abraham was justified by faith, and in St. 
James, that he was justified by works. One discourse 
of our Lord's, in which He makes mention of the day 
of judgment, and describes the blessing and the curse 
respectively pronounced on those who have performed 
or neglected such charitable offices as feeding the hun- 
gry, clothing the naked, and ministering to the sick, 
might seem to favor the conclusion that our final doom 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



137 



is to depend exclusively on our care or neglect of our 
distressed brethren, without any regard to our faith, or 
to the purity or the integrity of our lives ; in his final 
charge to his disciples again, it might seem that every 
thing is made to depend on right belief alone ; 44 he that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved." We are told 
again, by our Lord, to pray and to give alms, secretly ; 
and again 5 to let our "light so shine before men that 
they may see oar good works;" and by the apostle, 
" not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together" 
for the purpose of worship. We are told by our Lord, 
44 He that is not with me is against me ;" and again, 
" he that is not against us is with us ;" — that " he who 
hateth not his father and mother, and wife and children, 
and all that he hath, cannot be his disciple ;" and again 
by his apostle, that "he who provideth not for his own 
house, is worse than an infidel." The same again who 
tells his disciples, " the Father hath sent me ;" " I go 
to the Father," " the Father is greater than I ;" " I can 
of mine own self do nothing ;" tells them also, 44 he 
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, — I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me, — I and the Father are 
one." The same who tells them, that He " will not 
leave them comfortless, but will come unto them ;" and 
" lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world ;" tells them also, 44 if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will i 
send Him unto you ;" yet again he tells them of " the 
Comforter whom the Father will send in his (Christ's) 
name ;" and again in another place, 44 if any man keep 
my saying, my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him." And He 
who was preached to Cornelius as 44 one whom God 
anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power," i? 
spoken of by St. Paul, as 44 over all, God, blessed for 
13* 



138 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 

ever," 64 in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
head bodily :" — and instances of a similar character 
might be multiplied to a great extent. 

I am well aware what copious and satisfactory expla- 
nations have been given of a multitude of such seeming 
discrepancies as these : the only point that pertains to 
the present question, and which we ought, I think, 
strongly to dwell upon, is, that they are not to be re- 
garded merely in the light of difficulties, but rather as 
belonging to the mode of instruction employed in Scrip- 
ture. In teaching moral duties, there are good reasons 
for introducing, as we find is occasionally done, some 
maxims which, taken separately, and interpreted with 
literal strictness, are at variance with each other, but 
which, when taken in connexion, serve to explain and 
modify each other. Instructions thus conveyed are 
evidently more striking and more likely to arouse the 
attention ; and also, from the very circumstance that 
they call for careful reflection, more likely to make a 
lasting impression. e But there are additional reasons 
for adopting this mode of conveying to us the requisite 
knowledge concerning mysteries which are not directly 
comprehensible by our understanding. Since no lan- 
guage could convey to man, with his present faculties, 
in proper terms, a clear and just notion of those attri- 
butes and acts of the Supreme Being, which revelation 
designed to impart, it was necessary for this purpose to 
resort to analogical expressions, which may convey to 
us, in faint shadows and figures, such a knowledge of 
divine mysteries as is requisite, and is alone within the 
reach of our capacity. 5 

Now the disadvantage attending the use of such lan- 
guage is, that men are sometimes apt to understand it 



e See the following Essay. 

f See King's Discourse on Predestination. 



IN SCRIPTURE. 139 

too literally, and to interpret what is said more strictly 
than was intended. And the best remedy against this 
mistake, is to vary the figures employed as much as 
possible ; — to illustrate the same thing by several dif- 
ferent analogies ; by which means, these several ex- 
pressions, being inconsistent, when understood literally, 
will serve to limit and correct each other ; and thus, 
together, to convey more clearly the real meaning 
designed/ 

What has been just said, may be illustrated by the 
language we employ in speaking of the human mind 
and its operations ; respecting which, we have few or 
no terms which are not, originally at least, borrowed 
from the material world. For instance, it is very com- 
mon to speak of the memory as a kind of storehouse 
or repository : — we speak of treasuring up things in 
the memory ; of having the memory well stored; and 
the like. Now there might be a danger that by the 
long and familiar use of such figurative expressions, 
we should at length come to forget that they are 
figurative ; — to imagine the brain to be literally a kind 
of storehouse, and ideas or notions to be some real 
things actually laid up within it : but this mistake is 
guarded against by another, and quite different, set of 
figurative expressions for describing the same thing : 
for we often again speak of the memory as a kind of 
writing tablet; we speak of things being written, — 
imprinted, — engraved, on the memory ; or again, of 
their being erased from the memory. Now these 
expressions again would mislead men, if understood 
literally; but this is, prevented by those other modes 
of expression before mentioned; which in their turn 
are limited and explained by these. For by consider- 



s See Stewart's Philosophy. 



140 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 

ing that the two, when taken literally, contradict each 
other, — that the memory cannot be, literally, at once 
a store-house and a writing-tablet,— we are habitually 
reminded that it is literally neither ; but is so called 
only by analogy. 

Now as we are thus unable to speak even of the 
workings of the human mind without using such figura- 
tive expressions, much less can we expect that all 
which is to be taught us of the things relating to the 
Most High, can be conveyed to us in any other way. 
And in each case it is requisite that the figures employed 
should be several and various, in order the better to 
guard us against understanding any one of them more 
literally than was intended. It was designed, therefore, 
that many of the expressions employed should be such 
as would, if strictly and literally interpreted, contra- 
dict each other; and such as may, when reconciled 
together, lead us as near the truth as our minds are 
capable of approaching. The mariner who has to steer 
his passage through the untracked ocean, when it hap- 
pens that he cannot have the exact line of his course 
pointed out, is often enabled to avoid any important 
deviation from it, by being acquainted with certain 
boundaries on each side of it, and by keeping his ves- 
sel between them. Certain rocks and landmarks may 
serve to furnish to his eye a kind of line, which will 
secure him, as long as he keeps within them, from cer- 
tain shoals or currents which he is to avoid on one side 
of his destined course : but this is of no service in 
guarding him against the dangers which may beset him 
on the opposite quarter ; for this purpose, another line 
must be pointed out to him, in the same manner, on the 
contrary side ; and though neither of these lines is pre- 
cisely that of the course he is to steer v yet an attention 
to bpth of them will enable him to proceed midway, in 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



141 



safety, and in the direction required. Even thus, it will 
often happen, that two apparently opposite passages of 
Scripture may together enable us to direct our faith or 
our practice aright ; one shall be calculated to guard us 
against certain errors on one side, and the other, on the 
other side ; neither, taken alone, shall convey the exact 
and entire truth ; but both, taken in conjunction, may 
enable us sufficiently to ascertain it. Perplexity, there- 
fore, and error must be the result of an undue prefer- 
ence, and an over strict interpretation, of one or two 
such expressions, to the neglect of the others. For we 
have in many instances (to use another illustration) 
something corresponding to the composition of forces 
in mechanics : several different texts will be analogous 
to several impulses in various directions acting on a 
body which is to be set in motion, and whose combined 
effect will propel it in the direction required ; though 
no one of the impulses, taken singly, is acting precisely 
in that direction, 

§5. After all, indeed^ the notions conveyed to us in 
this w r ay can be but very faint and indistinct ; but for 
that very reason they are the less likely to be incorrect ; 
for if we obtain a full and clear notion of things be- 
yond the reach of the human faculties, it cannot fail to 
be an erroneous notion. The main object of revelation 
being to represent to us, not so much what God is in 
Himself, as what he is relatively to us, with a view to 
our practical benefit, this object may be sufficiently 
accomplished by dim and faint pictures of things which 
could not otherwise be revealed at all. The " light 
which no man can approach unto," if presented in 
unmitigated blaze to eyes too weak to endure it, would 
blind, instead of enlightening ; we now " see through a 
darkened glass," what we could not otherwise see at all. 



142 ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 

Although, however, we ma)" well believe that we are 
deficient in faculties for comprehending, as they are in 
themselves, many things of which the Scriptures fur- 
nish us with some faint representations, yet since, of 
course, no one can form a distinct conception of the 
nature and extent of his own deficiency, it may be pro- 
fitable to illustrate our own case by that of a person 
destitute of some faculty which we do possess ; by 
which means we may the better understand the nature 
of that mode of instruction which the Scriptures adopt, 
and the advantage and necessity of employing it for 
such beings as we now are. Let any one, for instance, 
attend to the case of a man born blind, and endeavor 
to convey to him some idea of the sense of seeing, and 
of the nature of light, and colors : when you attempt 
this, you will then be in a situation answering in some 
degree to that of the inspired writers when they are 
instructing us in the unseen things of God. — You might 
easily explain to the blind man that colors are perceived 
by the eyes ; which convey to men (as well as the other 
senses, and even better) a knowledge of the objects 
around us ; you might also easily make him under- 
stand that light is something different from heat, and 
yet proceeds from the sun, — a fire, — a candle, — or the 
like ; and that when nothing of this kind is present, 
there is darkness, in which no one can see ; and also 
that light is cheerful and agreeable, and darkness some- 
thing melancholy : so far, we are giving merely gene- 
ral descriptions ; which would be intelligible enough, 
but could convey only the most faint and imperfect idea 
of seeing. You might then impart some further know- 
ledge by means of the analogy of the other senses ; for 
instance, you might teach him that seeing, in one re- 
spect, resembles hearing and smelling, inasmuch as it 
conveys a knowledge of things at a distance as they do ; 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



143 



but that, nevertheless, it is as different from either of 
them as they are from each other ; and that, moreover, 
seeing gives us, what hearing and smelling cannot, a 
notion of the magnitude and of the form of bodies ; in 
which respect it agrees with- the sense of touch ; though 
this last again conveys the knowledge only of such 
bodies as are close to us ; whereas sight extends to a 
distance. Now such instruction as this, given to a blind 
man, may serve to illustrate what has been just said 
about the apparent contradictions in Scripture : for the 
blind man might easily interpret the two parts of this 
lesson as contradictory ; and might say, " How can the 
same thing bear any resemblance to hearing, and at the 
same time to feeling ?" Or he might regard even each 
part of the lesson as in itself contradictory and impos- 
sible : — -saying, " You would fain persuade me that there 
is some way of touching things at a distance : or that 
there is a kind of hearing or of smelling by which one 
can judge of form and magnitude ; none of which is 
conceivable and it is plain, that if he regarded either 
part of your instruction, by itself, and was not careful to 
limit and explain it by the other, he would be utterly 
misled ; for he would suppose seeing to be much more 
like some one of the other senses than it really is, But 
if he were careful to attend to the whole, together, and 
to consider that two things may be very much alike in 
one respect, and yet very different in others, h and that 
the same thing may be compared to several others 
which are themselves quite unlike, and may resemble 
OLte of these things in one respect, and another, in an- 
other, and in some respects again may differ from all of 
them, he would acquire a faint, indeed, and indistinct 
notion of sight, but as far as it went, not an incorrect 



h See King's Discourse on Predestination, 



144 



ON APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS 



one ; for he would understand that sight in one respect 
corresponds, or is analogous to smelling and hearing, 
inasmuch as it extends to distant objects : and again, in 
another respect, to touch, inasmuch as it gives an idea 
of shape and size ;— that it- differs from each of these 
respectively in the circumstance wherein it agrees with 
the other : and that it differs in many points from both, 
So that by interpreting each of these analogies in such 
a manner as to be reconcilable with the other, he would 
be using the best means to avoid misunderstanding 
either, and to attain the most perfect knowledge which 
his natural deficiency would allow. For if you at- 
tempted, beyond this, to give him any distinct and 
precise knowledge of the nature of light and colors, 
you would be more likely to confuse and mislead, than 
to instruct him. 

The circumstance that the knowledge conveyed to 
us in Scripture, in many cases, is not merely incom- 
plete in degree, but, being conveyed to us by figures, 
is also different in Kind from that more direct and per- 
fect knowledge which we may hope hereafter to attain, 
is alluded to, perhaps, in that expression of St. Paul's 
respecting the glorified state ; " whether there be know- 
ledge it shall vanish away :'' we might have expected 
him, perhaps, to promise rather an increase and exten- 
sion of our knowledge ; but it appeared to him probably 
that the knowledge we now possess concerning several 
points not fully comprehensible to us, is so utterly dif- 
ferent in kind, from that which is reserved for us. that 
the change might more properly be called an entire 
vanishing of the notions we are at present able to form, 
and a substitution of others in their place. In like 
manner, if we suppose a blind man who had been in- 
structed in the way just described, to obtain sight, all 
those faint analogical notions of seeing, which we may 



IN SCRIPTURE. 



145 



conceive him to have formed, would fade away from 
his mind, and be succeeded by others incomparably 
more direct and clear. 

Meanwhile our care must be, during our state of trial 
here below, not to imagine our knowledge more com- 
plete than it is ; nor to expect from the Scriptures such 
information as they were not meant to supply. We 
must not study them as designed to convey, as it were, 
in terms of art, the speculative truths of philosophy ; 
but must seek, in the first instance at least, and with 
the greatest diligence, such truths as are relative to 
man, and practical; — not the 44 secret things which 
belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which 
are revealed, which belong unto us, that we may do 
them :" nor must we allow ourselves, in any case, to 
interpret strongly all the texts which seem to offer 
themselves on one side, while we explain away all that 
are on the other side ; as if, on the ground that they 
are not to be taken literally, we were thence authorized 
to affix to them any signification whatever that may 
chance to suit our views ; but we must endeavor ho- 
nestly to reconcile Scripture with itself, and thus to avail 
ourselves of that mode of instruction which our Divine 
Teacher has thought best for us. So shall we be ena- 
bled, through Divine help, to avoid, or to diminish, 
many of the difficulties which presumptuous speculators, 
or partial and prejudiced inquirers, have to encounter 
in the Scriptures: we shall find them " able to make 
us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ 
Jesus." 

14 



ESSAY VIII 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE 
NEW TESTAMENT, 



In the preceding Essay some remarks were offered 
relative to the methods employed for communicating as 
much as was needful to be known, concerning the more 
abstruse doctrines of our religion ; viz. by apparent 
contradictions ; — by expressions which, if taken lite- 
rally, would be at variance with each other ; and which 
•consequently must be mutually explained and modified 
by each other, in order that they may be reconciled. 
And in this case the advantage of such a procedure is 
evident ; the things themselves are such as we are no 
more capable of distinctly and fully comprehending, 
than a blind man can, the nature of light and colors ; 
such instruction, therefore, as we can receive concern- 
ing them, must be necessarily imparted, according to 
the same principles by which we should convey to the 
blind some idea of sight ; viz. by employing several 
different analogies, each of which may serve to correct 
the others, and all of which in conjunction may convey 
a notion as nearly approaching to the reality as the case 
will permit. 

But, (as was observed in that Essay) in the inculca- 
tion of moral precepts, there cannot be the same reason 
for employing this method, as there is in doctrinal in- 
struction respecting inscrutable mysteries. And yet 
there are not a few directly practical passages, in differ- 



MODE OF CONVEYING IvlORAL PRECEPTS. 147 



ent parts of the New Testament, which, if taken lite- 
rally and in their full force, would contradict each 
other ; and such apparent discrepancies there are, not 
only between the writings of the evangelists and the 
apostolic epistles, but also between different portions of 
our Lord's own discourses. Not only is St. Paul's 
censure of that man as " worse than an infidel," who 
neglects to " provide for those of his own household,' ' 
at variance with our Lord's declaration, " If any man 
hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, 
and all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple," if both 
be understood literally, and -without limitation ; but 
also, according to such an interpretation, our Lord's 
own precept to his disciples to " let their light shine 
before men," would be no less opposed to his command 
that their prayers and alms should be strictly concealed. 
And his description again of the day of judgment, in 
which the performance or neglect of the works of 
charity seem to be the sole ground of distinction be- 
tween the saved and the condemned, is apparently 
opposed not only to St. Paul's declaration " by grace 
ye are saved, through faith, and that, not of yourselves, 
it is the gift of God," and to numberless others of the 
same character, but also to the literal import of 
Christ's own parting declaration to his disciples, which 
seems to make the absence or presence of a right belief, 
the only point considered ; " he that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved." And many other like in- 
stances might be adduced, which plainly show that the 
system of instructing by apparent contradictions is not 
confined to doctrinal, but extends to practical points ; 
and that in both cases it is requisite to compare and 
balance, as it were, against each other, different parts 
of Scripture, if we would gain a correct view of what it 
is intended to convey. 



148 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



§ 1. For what purpose, then, it maybe asked, did our 
Lord and his inspired followers resort to this method 
of instruction, in respect of those practical duties which 
are not, like the more abstruse doctrines of Christianity, 
beyond the reach of man's faculties ? 

In order to answer this question, it will be necessary 
to revert to some considerations which have been for- 
merly suggested. " a 

Let it be observed, then, that it was no part of the 
scheme of the Gospel revelation to lay down any thing 
approaching to a complete system of moral precepts, — 
to enumerate every thing that is enjoined or forbidden 
by our religion ; nor again to give a detailed general 
description of Christian duty, — or to delineate, after the 
manner of systematic ethical writers, each separate 
habit of virtue or of vice. When the Mosaic law was 
brought to a close, — (a law, of which we have no Scrip- 
ture warrant for supposing that any part was intended 
to continue in force, under the Gospel dispensation, or 
to be extended to the Gentiles ;) when this law, I say, 
was brought to a close, no other set of precise rules 
was substituted in its place. New and higher motives 
were implanted ; — a more exalted and perfect example 
was proposed for imitation ; — a loftier standard of mo- 
rality was established, — rewards more glorious, and 
punishments more appalling, were held out ; — and su- 
pernatural aid was bestowed : and the Christian, with 
these incentives and these advantages, is left to apply, 
for himself, in each case, the principles of the Gospel ; 
he is left to act at his own discretion, according to the 
dictates of his conscience, — to cultivate Christian dispo- 
sitions, — and thus to be " a law unto himself." From 
the exact regulations under which the Israelites, when 



* Essay V. 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 149 

in a condition analogous to childhood, were placed, he 
is released ; not that he may be under a less strict moral 
restraint, but that he may attain, under it, a more manly 
self-government, — a higher degree of moral excellence ; 
even as the precise rules and strict control under which 
a child is placed, are gradually relaxed as he advances 
towards maturity ; not on the ground that good conduct 
is less required of a man than of a child, but, on the 
contrary, because the very maturity of age, which 
emancipates him from the trammels of childhood, ren- 
ders him capable of regulating his conduct for himself 
by his own judgment. " Behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord," (according to the prophet Jeremiah, cited 
by St. Paul to the Hebrews,) " when I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel ; not according to the 

covenant w^hich I made with their fathers 

for this is the covenant which I will make with the 
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I will 
put my laws into their mind, and write them in their 
hearts." 

The system, then, according to which the Christian's 
life is to be regulated, is one under which, not a less, 
but a greater degree of moral perfection is expected of 
him ; but which substitutes sublime principles for exact 
rules ; it is this system that St. Paul sometimes calls 
" faith," — sometimes " the law of faith>" to distinguish 
it, not from good works, but from the law of Moses, 
It is called the law of faith, not because Christians are 
not (which he assures us they are) to stand before 
Christ's tribunal " to give an account of the things 
done in the body," but because their moral conduct is 
required to spring from faith ; — from faith in the re- 
deeming mercy of God, who " was in Christ reconcil- 
ing the world unto Himself," and the devout gratitude 
w T hich is the natural result of this ; — from faith in the 
14* 



150 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



divine holiness and purity of the Saviour, and the con- 
sequent desire to tread in his steps whose life is our 
example ; — from that faith in his promised rewards 
which leads to the endeavor after such a preparation of 
ourselves as may qualify us to dwell " for ever with the 
Lord ;"— from faith in his promised presence with us, 
even unto the end of the world, by his Spirit 44 which 
worketh in us both to will and to do, of his good plea- 
sure." 

Such a system, then, it was necessary so to develope, 
that its true character might not be mistaken. Since 
Christians were not to be guided by a precise code of 
laws, it w r as necessary to guard them carefully against 
expecting one. And even during our Lord's own minis- 
try, before the 44 law r of faith" was perfectly laid down, 
(the objects of that faith being but faintly and partially 
revealed,) still it was needful, even at the very outset, 
that men should not be led, or left, to suppose, that 
either a collection of exact rules, or a system of moral 
philosophy, was about to be proposed to their accept- 
ance ; — that either the Mosaic law was to remain in 
force, as to the literal observance of its several pre- 
cepts extended by the addition of others,— or that any 
corresponding system — any fresh enumeration of spe- 
cific acts forbidden and enjoined,— was to be introduced 
in the room of it. And care was the more necessary on 
this point, both because man in general is more ready 
to receive, even a burdensome law, of this character, 
than to be left to his own watchful and responsible dis- 
cretion in acting up to certain principles, and also 
because the Jews in particular had been accustomed to 
precise regulations, and nice distinctions as to specific 
acts, even far beyond what the written law of Moses 
had laid down. 

And yet our Lord's hearers had need of some moral 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 151 

instruction. It was important that illustrations should 
be afforded them of the application of the general prin- 
ciples of the new religion, to each particular point ; — it 
was desirable to enforce such duties as were especially 
neglected, and to point out the comparative degrees of 
importance of such as had been unduly estimated ; — 
many prevailing faults and prejudices called for correc- 
tion ; — and it was needful, universally, to guard against 
the supposition that the new covenant was designed to 
substitute faith for virtuous practice, and to save those 
who should " call Jesus Lord,'' while they continued 
w workers of iniquity." And as all this was to be ac- 
complished in the course of a short ministry, and the 
instruction was to be conveyed to men for the most part 
of untutored and unreflective minds, it was the more 
important that the mode of conveying it should be as 
striking and permanently impressive as possible ; with 
a constant caution at the same time against the mistake 
into which the hearers were ever liable to fall ; — that of 
imagining that they were to receive certain definite pre- 
cepts, and satisfying themselves with a literal obedience 
to each. 

Something peculiar then may be expected in the 
mode of conveying moral instructions, when the object 
proposed comprehended all the circumstances just men- 
tioned ; — when it required that, besides being suited to 
the capacity and to the moral condition of the hearer, 
the precepts should at the same time be both forcibly 
impressive, and also such as to exclude the idea of any 
intention to lay down a complete moral code. 

§ 2. In the moral lessons of the Gospel, accordingly, 
three peculiarities especially may be observed, which 
have a reference to the circumstances I have noticed, 
and which may be explained by them. 



152 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



First, The precepts are often apparently contradic- 
tory to each other: 

Secondly, They are often such that a literal compli- 
ance with them would be, in many cases, either impos- 
sible, or at least, extravagant and irrational : 

And, Thirdly, This literal compliance would in many 
instances amount to so insignificant and unimportant a 
point of duty, as could not be supposed deserving of a 
distinct inculcation for its own sake. And two, or all 
three, of these characters may sometimes be found to 
meet in one single precept. 

The reason of all this is clear, from the principles 
that have been already laid down : every mode is em- 
ployed of warning the hearers against satisfying them- 
selves with an observance of these precepts according 
to the letter, in doing or abstaining from some particu- 
lar action. For a literal compliance with precepts 
which, literally taken, are inconsistent, would be impos- 
sible ; where that literal compliance would be wrong 
or absurd, it is manifest it could not be intended ; 
where it would be trifling, it is manifest that it cannot 
be all that is intended. And thus the disciples were 
driven, if they were sincerely desirous to learn, and 
would interpret rationally and candidly what they heard, 
to perceive that such precepts as I am speaking of were 
designed to explain and enforce those general principles 
on which men are to regulate their conduct : while the 
very circumstance that such instructions excite some 
degree of surprise, and evidently call for careful reflec- 
tion, renders them the more likely to make a lasting 
impression. Many instances of each description will 
readily occur to most persons : I will advert to a very 
few. 

When Jesus tells his disciples to pray and to give 
alms in secret, and not to let their " left hand know 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 153 



what their right hand doeth," and yet exhorts them to 
" let their light shine before men," it is plain from these 
precepts, taken in conjunction, and explained by each 
other, that his design was to discountenance an osten- 
tatious motive, but to leave to our own conscientious 
discretion the mode of performing each action on each 
occasion. When the publicity of our alms and of our 
devotions, appears likely to " glorify God," and to be- 
nefit men by the influence of a good example, the princi- 
ples of the Gospel prescribe that publicity ; in cases 
where it tends only to the gratification of our own vani- 
ty, and especially when we have reason to fear that we 
may be too much actuated by the desire of men's praise, 
then concealment is to be preferred. 

Again, when men's future destiny is described in one 
place as determined by their performance or omission 
of the social duties, — in another, by the government of 
the tongue, — in another, by belief and- baptism alone,— 
in another, (the parable of the rich man and Lazarus) 
apparently by the luxuries enjoyed, or privations un- 
dergone in the present life,— we may easily learn, by 
comparing and balancing together all these passages, 
that no good works of man, not springing from belief 
in the Gospel, can tend to salvation,- — yet that profes- 
sions of faith in Christ are but a mockery of him, 
when unaccompanied with active benevolence towards 
those whom he calls his brethren ; — that we shall be 
condemned or justified by our words as well as by our 
actions; — and that those who set their hearts on the 
good things of this world, and lay up no treasures in 
heaven, can have no reasonable expectation of heavenly 
rewards. 

Again, the injunction in the passage before cited, to 
56 hate father and mother," &c. if we would be Christ's 



164 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



disciples, 1 is not only, if taken literally, at variance with 
the exhortations to universal benevolence, and to St. 
Paul's command to provide for our families, but also 
to the plainest dictates of conscience and of common 
sense. This then is an instance which illustrates at 
once two of the principles above laid down. It is plain, 
therefore, that such a precept could not be meant to be 
understood and obeyed literally : and if there could be 
any doubt in what manner Christ intended it should 
be obeyed, he himself has given us in another place an 
explanation of it; " he that loveth father or mother 
more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that loveth 
son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." 
It is evident, therefore, that what is intended by the 
command to hate the objects of s our strongest regard, 
is, that the things of the greatest importance to our 
happiness, and which have the strongest hold on our 
affections, must be accounted by us as nothing, in com- 
parison with our devotedness to Christ ; and that 



b It may be observed by the way, what an evidence to the truth of 
Christianity is afforded by this declaration of our Lord, together with 
his warning that every one who would be his disciple must be ready 
to c< take up his cross and follow Him, 35 and must, in imitation of a man 
designing to build, and of a king about to make war, coolly calculate 
before-hand whether he has strength sufficient to go through with the 
enterprise. All this constitutes so uninviting a doctrine, that we may 
be sure no one would have preached it who had any object in view ex- 
cept that of teaching the truth. We have here, therefore, one of those 
many internal evidences of our religion, which may be made completely 
intelligible to the unlearned Christian. For common sense may con- 
vince any one, that had Jesus been either an impostor or an enthusiast, 
he would never have entertained, and taught others to entertain, such 
a view of his religion. He would have used all means to invite men to 
become his disciples, instead of deterring them ; and would either him- 
self have overlooked, or else, concealed from the people, the difficulties 
to be encountered by those who should embrace the Gospel ; instead 
of pointing them out, and earnestly dwelling upon them. 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 155 

whenever any of these objects shall chance to stand in 
the way of our obedience to him, we must be ready to 
resign it without a murmur. 

Sacrifices of this kind were doubtless much more 
frequently called for in the first ages of the Church, 
than they are now ; because not only many were called 
on to abandon their homes and friends, and devote 
themselves to the propagation of the Gospel in distant 
countries, but it also frequently happened that men's 
nearest and dearest connexions were at variance with 
them respecting the religion of Christ ; and that they 
had to suffer persecution, or at least censure and con- 
tempt from those very friends whose good opinion and 
regard they had been the most accustomed to prize : 
" Think not that I am come to send peace on earth ; I 
tell you nay, but rather division ; the father shall be 
divided against the son, and the son against the father ; 
a man's foes shall be they of his own house- 
hold." 

It is plain, therefore, that a man must have been (in 
such circumstances) very strongly tempted to shrink 
from the bold and open profession of his faith ; and to 
concede too much to the authority of those around him : 
and, accordingly, we read of many leading men among 
the Jews, who sought to compromise the matter, by 
outwardly renouncing the opinions they inwardly held, 
who " believed in Jesus, but secretly," for fear of being 
" cast out of the synagogue ; for they loved the praise 
of men more than the praise of God." 

There is not, however, nor will ever be, any time or 
any country, in which the sincere Christian is not liable 
to be called upon to make some sacrifices in the cause 
of Christ, — to do, or to forego, or undergo, something, 
which occasions a painful struggle to his nature ; and 
this our Lord exhorts us deliberately to prepare for. 



156 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



and, if we would be his disciples, to give him a most 
decided and strong preference to every object that may- 
stand in the way of our faith or of our obedience to 
him. This he in another place very strongly en- 
forces in a figurative form of expression ; which also, 
common sense teaches us, it would be absurd to under- 
stand literally ; saying, 44 if thine eye offend thee, pluck 
it out and cast it from thee meaning thereby, that 
whatever offends us as Christians, that is, stands in our 
way, and obstructs our progress in following our Mas- 
ter's steps, though it may be as dear to us as an eye, 
or a right hand, must be renounced thoroughly, and 
heartily, and cheerfully for his sake, if we expect that 
he should own us as his disciples. 

Now this precept of plucking out an eye, or cutting 
off a right hand, is by no means hard to be understood, 
as to the spirit and intention of it, and the disposition 
meant to be recommended ; and when it is understood, 
its effect will be, on those who sincerely study to com- 
ply with it, exactly what our Lord designed ; they 
cannot in this case satisfy their conscience by a literal 
compliance with it in the performance of any specific 
act ; and, consequently, will the more naturally be led 
to cultivate that frame of mind, and study to adopt that 
principle of thorough devotedness to Christ, which he 
meant to recommend. 

Again, in inculcating the duty of gentleness and pa- 
tience under provocation, he says, 44 if any man smite 
thee on the right cheek, turn to him the left also ; if any 
man will take away thy cloak, let him have thy coat 
also ; if any man compel thee to go a mile, go with him 
twain :" in which it is evident, that his meaning was, not 
the mere literal performance of those specific actions 
mentioned, but the cultivation of a mild and long-suffer- 
ing temper. The strong way in which he delivered 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 157 

those precepts — the striking and often paradoxical illus- 
trations which he gave of them — had the effect of 
making a more lively impression on the hearers' minds, 
and at the same time guarded them (as I have just before 
observed) against supposing that it was enough to per- 
form, literally, the particular actions mentioned, without 
adopting the principle of action which he was illustrat- 
ing. This last instance again combines two of the 
circumstances above mentioned ; the mere literal ob- 
servance of the precept would not only be in many 
cases irrational, but also manifestly insufficient, and 
would fall far short of what is meant to be inculcated ; 
and hence a candid hearer is the more immediately led 
to understand, that obedience to it implies not the bare 
performance of this or that particular action, but the 
careful cultivation of a certain habit of action. 

The same observations will apply to our Lord's pre- 
cept against choosing " the most honorable seats at 
feasts ;" and his exhortation to men to occupy a lower 
place than they have a just title to. He did indeed 
intend that his rule respecting good manners should be 
literally observed, since good manners is a part of good 
morals \ but it is evident that this literal compliance 
was the least 'part of what he designed, and that he 
took this method of inculcating, generally, a caution 
against arrogance and self-exaltation. 

Universally, indeed, he was accustomed to illustrate 
whatever principle he had in view, by some particular 
instance ; knowing that this would take better hold on 
men's attention, and be more surely fixed in their memo- 
ry, than if he had confined himself to the mere general 
maxim ; and that it would be very easy for any one, 
after being, by this exemplification, put in possession of 
the general maxim, to extend and apply it for himself, 
to every case that might occur ; supposing him to have 
15 



158 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



the sincere disposition to do so, without which no in- 
struction can avail. 

Thus, when he was called upon to explain what kind 
of neighborly love we ought to show, and towards 
whom, he illustrates his meaning by relating the para- 
ble of a man who 6 * fell among thieves," and he con- 
cludes his instruction by saying, " Go and do thou like- 
wise which exhortation no one can be so stupid, if 
he be not also perverse, as to interpret by the letter, as 
meaning merely that when he might chance to meet 
with a traveller thus circumstanced, he should relieve 
him, and that precisely such a case as that in the para- 
ble was all that was contemplated. The interpretation 
of " Go and do thou likewise" was clear enough to any 
one who wished to understand it ; as signifying that we 
are to regard every one as a neighbor to whom we 
have an opportunity of doing service, and are ready to 
perform the kind offices of a neighbor towards him. 

But, as I have said, our Lord chose not only to illus- 
trate his general maxim by some particular exemplifica- 
tion; but, also, in order to make it the more clear to 
his hearers that this was his object, — that the instances 
adduced were for the purpose of illustrating the general 
rule, — it happened very frequently, as in the case of 
some of the illustrations just mentioned, that he selected 
by choice such as were in themselves the smallest and 
most insignificant instances of the rule. Thus, when 
he wished to impress on his disciples in the most forci- 
ble manner the duty of being ready to serve, and per- 
form kind offices for one another, he taught them by 
an action, — by himself condescending to wash their 
feet ; and afterwards telling them, " ye ought also to 
wash one another's feet." This, it is well known, was, 
from the peculiar circumstances of the age and country, 
one of the chief refreshments to travellers : this parti- 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 159 

cular instance, consequently, was chosen, as affording 
an easy and familiar illustration of the general disposi- 
tion he designed to inculcate ; a readiness to perform 
all manner of kind offices for one another. Now if the 
particular office of kindness selected by him, had been 
one of the more important services of life, there might 
have been the more danger of their supposing that his 
precept was meant to extend only to that particular ser- 
vice mentioned: whereas this was guarded against by 
his particularizing one of the smallest : when he said 
to them, " ye ought to wash one another's feet," they 
could not have a doubt that the precept was meant to 
extend to more than that one point of hospitality, and 
to comprehend a general disposition to befriend one 
another, 

§ 3. To those, then, who are sincerely desirous of 
instruction, and willing to use care and diligence in 
seeking it, and in practically applying what they learn, 
it will, in most cases, be no difficult task to ascer- 
tain what principles those are which our Lord and 
his apostles intended, on each occasion, to inculcate, 
and in what manner Christians are required to exem- 
plify them in their lives. 

If we first examine the whole of each passage, so as 
to understand the occasion on which any precept was 
delivered, and to what persons, and under what circum- 
stances ; and if we are also careful to compare different 
(and especially, apparently inconsistent) passages to- 
gether, so interpreting each as it is explained, or limit- 
ed, or confirmed, or extended, or otherwise modified, 
by the rest ; we shall be employing those means for 
ascertaining aright the sense of God's word, which 
common prudence would prescribe, — which, doubtless, 
were intended to be employed in such an inquiry, and 



160 



ON THE MODE OF CONVEYING 



which, we may trust, by God's grace, will not be em« 
ployed in vain. 

On the other hand, the inattentive and the uncandid, 
— those who read the Scriptures without diligent study, 
or with a study only to find confirmations of their pre- 
conceived notions, and vindications of their own con- 
duct, — such could not have been secured from error, 
even by any other mode of instruction that could have 
been adopted. Let it not be objected, therefore, to the 
method pursued by our Lord and his followers, that it 
affords an opening for such as are so disposed to es- 
cape from any doctrines or duties they may object to, 
and to model others according to their own inclinations, 
by dwelling on and enforcing literally such texts as 
suit their purpose, and explaining away the rest. The 
most precise and detailed precepts would have been no 
less successfully evaded by the same persons ; they 
would easily have found some contrivance, when they 
were so disposed, to " make the word of God of none 
effect, by their tradition." And the most copious and 
philosophical system of ethics would have proved no 
better safeguard against the devices of a corrupt heart. 
Moral treatises afford no substitute for the exercise of 
discretion and of candor ; philosophy cannot teach its 
own application : on the contrary, such studies are 
useful to those only who employ that good sense and 
sincerity of intention, in bringing them into practice in 
tbe details of life. It is not enough (as the most illus- 
trious of the ancient moralists has observed ) to lay 
down that in each department of conduct, virtue con- 
sists in the medium between an excess and a deficiency ; 
it still remains to be decided in each single instance, 
where this medium is to be placed ; and as the determi- 



Aristot. Eth. Nicom. Book VI. chap. i. 



MORAL PRECEPTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 161 

nation of this is necessarily left to the judgment and 
conscience of the individual, so, any one whose moral 
judgment is not uncorrupt, and who is seeking, not to 
improve his character, but to vindicate it, may easily 
find means first to represent, and afterwards to believe, 
his own conduct to be exactly the right medium. For 
the maxim laid down in another place by the philoso- 
pher just alluded to, for applying his own rules, is one 
which the generality of men completely reverse : he 
bids each man observe to which of the two extremes 
he is, in each point, most prone by his own natural dis- 
position, and to regard that, as (relatively to him) the 
worse extreme of the two ; being the one into which he 
is the more liable to fall : the common practice, on the 
contrary, is for each to regard, (as, indeed, is very natu- 
ral,) that as the worse extreme, to which he has the less 
tendency, and to look with less abhorrence on each 
fault in proportion as it is the more congenial to his 
own inclinations. 

Without vigilant and candid self-examination, then, 
no system of moral instruction that could have been 
devised, would have been practically available ; and 
with this, the instructions afforded in the Gospel will, 
through divine help, prove sufficient. There are two 
objects, neither of which a man will usually fail to 
attain, who zealously and steadily seeks it ; the one is, 
the knowledge of what in each case he ought to do ; the 
other is, a plausible excuse for doing as he is inclined. 
The latter of these, the carnally-minded might find in 
any set of precepts or moral instructions that could 
have been framed ; the former, the spiritually-minded 
will not fail to obtain in the Gospel. 

Only let him not seek in it for what he will not find 
there ; — precise and minute directions for every case 
that can occur ; or a set of insulated maxims which 
15* 



162 MODE OF CONVEYING MORAL PRECEPTS. 

admit of being taken away, as it were, from the context, 
and interpreted and applied without any reference to 
the rest of Scripture ; or for a general detailed descrip- 
tion of moral duties. 

But he will find there the most pure and sublime mo- 
tives inculcated, — the noblest principles instilled, — the 
most bold and uncompromising, yet sober and rational 
tone of morality maintained, — the most animating ex- 
amples proposed, and above all, the most effectual 
guidance* and assistance, and defence, provided ; even 
that of the Spirit of Truth, who will enable us duly to 
profit by the teaching of his inspired servants ; that we 
"may have our fruit unto holiness, and the end, ever- 
lasting life." 



ESSAY IX 

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



Those things which God's most favored servants 
under the old dispensation — which " many prophets 
and kings— had in vain desired to see and hear," the 
disciples of Jesus had been permitted to witness. They 
had seen the man whom 44 God had anointed with the 
Holy GHOST," a and 44 given it unto him not by mea- 
sure :" b — 44 the image of the invisible God," 44 whom 
no man hath seen at any time," d but whom 44 the only- 
begotten Son had declared unto them;" 6 44 being the 
express image of his person." 5 Imperfect and indis- 
tinct indeed, perhaps we may say confused, must have 
been the notions they entertained respecting the myste- 
rious Person with whom they had been so long holding 
intercourse. Such must be our notions also concern- 
ing him, unless they be erroneous; for the ideas Ave 
form on a subject surpassing the powers of our present 
minds, and which Scripture has but indistinctly reveal- 
ed, cannot be at once clear and correct. The disciples, 
however, had, during our Lord's abode with them, 
even more imperfect notions respecting him than they 
were afterwards taught to form. He had 44 many things 
to say unto them, which yet they could not bear." But 



* Acts x. 38. b John iii. 34 
d 1 John iv. 12; also John i. 18. 



c Coloss. i. 15. 

• John i. 18. * Heb. i. 3. 



164 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



they " knew and were sure that he was the Christ, the 
Son of the living God," and that " he had the words of 
eternal life :" and they had latterly been further taught 
that they were not to regard him as merely bearing 
the commission of the Most High, like the prophets of 
old ; nor yet as merely some being of a superhuman 
nature, whether a creature, or (according to the pre- 
sumptuous fancies which afterwards prevailed) some 
(Eon or Emanation from the Deity, and partaking of 
the Divine nature f for when asked by Philip, who 
probably was disposed to entertain some such notion, 
to show them the Father, he replied, " Have I been so 
long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? 
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how 
then sayest thou, Show us the Father ? Belie vest thou 
not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? h the 
words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself ; but 
the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. 

g The Gnostics (i. e. men of "science, falsely so called,") taught the 
doctrine of successive emanations (" endless genealogies" alluded to by 
St. Paul) from the Deity (whom they called the " Fulness,") and from 
one another, of these celestial beings ; in whom they personified many 
of the Scripture terms relating to the character or the dispensations of 
the Most High. Such as Logos, (the Word,) of whom they regarded 
Christ as an incarnation ; Phos, (Light,) feigned to have been incar- 
nate in John the Baptist ; Aletlieia (Truth) ; Zoe (Life) ; Monogenes- 
( only-begotten), and others. Without some acquaintance with this 
tissue of impious absurdity, it is impossible to understand fully the 
opening of St. John's Gospel. 

St. Paul's expressions also, "in Him dwelleth all the Fulness of the 

Godhead bodily" " it hath pleased the Father that in 

Him should all Fulness dwell," have reference probably to the same 
heresy. 

h This mode of expression seems to have been employed, as it con- 
stantly is, by our Lord, to guard his hearers against the notion of a 
local Deity,— against literally attributing place to the Divine Mind : 
thus he says, " abide in me, and I in you:" and "the same dwelleth 
in me. and I in him," Sue. 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



165 



Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
me ; or else believe me for the very works' sake." 
(John xiv.) 

§ 1. Well, therefore, might the disciples, when thus 
far taught, anticipate with grief and dismay the ap- 
proaching loss of this their Divine Master, — the de- 
struction of 44 the temple of his body," and the with- 
drawing of this 44 manifestation of God in the flesh," 
with which they had been so long favored ; and he 
most tenderly sets himself to relieve their fears and 
sorrows, by assuring them of his speedy return to abide 
with them for ever ; " I go away, and come again unto 
you ; a little while and ye shall not see me, and again 
a little while and ye shall see me." It was not, indeed, 
the bodily presence of their Master in the flesh, that 
they were to look for as continuing with them 44 always, 
even unto the end of the world," as these and several 
other of his expressions would have led them to sup- 
pose, had there not been others to modify and explain 
them ; it was another comforter, — the Holy Spirit, 
whom the Father should send in Christ's name, that 
should teach them all things, and should 44 abide with" 
them 44 for ever ;" though still Jesus suffers them not 
to suppose that they were to transfer their love and 
allegiance to a new master, or to look for consolation 
and instruction to any being distinct from himself; 
though after his ascension he would no longer be, as 
heretofore, the object daily present to their senses ; 
" That Spirit of Truth," he said, they knew : 44 for He 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you :" 44 1 will not 
leave you comfortless, I will come unto you ; yet a 
little while, and the world seeth me no more ; but ye 
see me ; because I live, ye shall live also : at that day 
ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, 



166 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



and I in you" 1 ..... u he that loveth me, shall be 
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will mani- 
fest myself to him" " my Father will love 

him, and we will come unto him and make our abode 
with him :" " abide in me, and I in you ; [ as the branch 
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, 
no more can ye, except ye abide in me ; — without me 
ye can do nothing." (John xv.) 

That these promises and these precepts of Jesus 
were not so confined to the disciples then around him 
as to concern no other Christians, is most evident. If 
the apostles could bring forth no fruit except they 
" abode in him, and he in them," no more, surely, can 
we. He had expressly declared that he "prayed not 
for them alone, but for those also, who should believe 
on him through their w r ord ;" nor would his promise of 
being " with them always even unto the end of the 
world," have been fulfilled by any assistance bestowed 
exclusively on one generation of mortal men. 

And it is equally clear, I think, to any one who seeks 
in earnest to be led by the Scriptures, that our Saviour's 
words are not to be explained as relating merely to a 
system of doctrines and motives, — to an distract reli- 
gious principle, — but to a real, individual, personal 
agent, even the Holy Spirit operating on the minds 
of believers : which is called, amidst the diversity of 
operations, one and the same Spirit, not figuratively, 
as when we speak of the spirit of patriotism, — the spirit 
of emulation, — the spirit of philosophical inquiry, and 
the like ; but literally and numerically, one Being, even 
the one God, whose temple is the whole body of the 
faithful ; which temple they are warned not to defile, 
lest God destroy them. For if any one could even so 

1 See note (fa) page 164, 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



167 



strain this last expression (as well as many other such) 
of St. Paul, and likewise all the words of Christ him- 
self, as to interpret them into mere metaphor, it would 
still be impossible for him to conceive a mere principle 
of action, — a Christian spirit, in that transferred sense 
of the word,— enabling Christians to work sensible 
miracles ; and these we find distinctly attributed to the 
immediate agency of the Divine Spirit. One, indeed, of 
the many important uses of the miraculous gifts bestow- 
ed on the infant Church, and one, doubtless, of those 
for which they were designed, was this : .they served to 
prove, among other things, that the promised indwell- 
ing of the Spirit of Christ in his Church, was not to 
be understood as a mere figure of speech, denoting their 
adherence to the doctrines he taught, and the possession 
of the inspired record of them, but a real, though un- 
seen, presence, by his Spirit ; — not the mere keeping 
of his commandments through love for his memory, 
but a spiritual union with him ; at once the promised 
reward, and the bond and support of that obedient love, 
— the effect at once and cause of our " keeping his say- 
ing." "For if any man love me," said he, "he will 
keep my saying, and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with him." 
And it is, I conceive, this, the more intimate union of 
the Spirit of Christ with his disciples — more intimate 
than thai which had existed while he was present with 
them in the flesh, — that he teaches them to regard as 
a ground for not only not grieving, but rejoicing, at his 
departure, which was to lead to such a re-union ; " if 
ye loved me ye would rejoice." 

§ 2. It may be said, however, that since " every good 
and every perfect gift is from above,"- — since from God 
" proceed all holy desires, good counsels, and just 



168 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



works," we must not account spiritual influence as any- 
peculiar privilege of the Gospel system, but must ac- 
knowledge that good men among the Israelites of old, 
if not among the Heathen also, acted under the guid- 
ance of the Holy Ghost. Indeed we find them even 
recognising this influence by their prayers to God to 
" make a clean heart within them," &c. And yet on 
the other hand, there can surely be no doubt that under 
the Gospel, some new manifestation of God in the Spirit 
has taken place. We cannot suppose that the persons, 
who by our Lord's directions were baptized into the 
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who were 
" born again of water and of the Spirit," in order to 
their entering into the newly founded kingdom of 
heaven, were admitted to no privilege which had not 
been all along enjoyed by their fathers even from the 
creation. And every part of the New Testament con- 
firms this view. Among the rest, we find in St. John's 
Gospel, " this spake he of the Holy Ghost, which 
they that believed on him should receive ; for the 
Holy Ghost was not yet ;" k " because that Jesus was 
not yet glorified." And again, those twelve disciples 
whom St. Paul found at Ephesus in his third apostoli- 
cal journey, had " not so much as heard whether there 
be any Holy Ghost." Yet certainly they could not 
have been ignorant that God is a Spirit ; nor can it well 
be supposed, that they, and St. John in the passage 
just cited, refer to the miraculous effusion alone, and 
call that extraordinary agency, especially and exclusive- 
ly, the Holy Ghost; since they must have known how 
frequently God had of old inspired the prophets, and 
enabled many of them to perform various miracles. 
In what then are we to conclude the difference con- 



it " Given," is added by the translators. 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



169 



sisted between the Christian Church and her prede- 
cessor, in respect of spiritual endowment? Without 
presuming to decide on the degree of divine assistance 
bestowed on individuals under the two dispensations 
respectively, (which would be presumptuous,) this im- 
portant distinction we may plainly perceive ; that, of 
the Christian Church, the Holy Spirit is the promised 
and permanent Comforter : He is the "promise of the 
Father," sent that " He may abide with us for ever" 
Whatever sanctifying aid may have been, in fact, sup- 
plied, under the Old Covenant, it was no part of that 
Covenant ; — of the Christian Covenant, it is. God the 
Holy Ghost,— God manifest in the Spirit, was not 
the permanent Ruler of the former Church, as he is of 
the Christian. As for the divine communications to 
the prophets, and the miraculous powers bestowed on 
them and on others, under the Old Dispensation, these 
were not continuous, but occasional ; inward sanctify- 
ing grace, again, bestowed on the humble and pious, 
may have been, for aught we know, constant, — but was 
not promised. And hence the Jewish peop]e was never 
called, like the Christians, the 44 Temple of the Holy 
Ghost." 

What St. John, therefore, (as well as those disciples 
at Ephesus,) meant by the Holy Spirit, which, he 
says, "was not yet," (ok« ^v) must have been, this cove- 
nanted, and perpetual manifestation of God in the 
Spirit, (a manifestation now to faith only, though at 
first confirmed by sensible miracles) as the Governor. 
Protector, Consoler, in short, Paraclete, of the Christian 
Church. For we are Christ's Body ; and " hereby 
know we that he dwelleth in us, by his Spirit which 
he hath given us." These considerations alone would 
be sufficient to prove, were other proofs less abundant, 
that the promised presence of God with the Christian 
16 



170 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



Church, cannot, without setting Scripture at defiance, 
be understood as referring merely to the writings of 
the New Testament which he inspired ; since that 
would give us no advantage over the Jewish Church ; 
for " holy men of old spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost." 

§ 3. The promise of Christ, however, that he would 
always, even unto the end of the world, be with his 
Church, which is thus constituted " the temple of the 
Holy Ghost that dwelleth in it," is not understood by 
all in the same extent. While on the one hand, some 
enthusiasts have pretended to inspiration, and other 
miraculous gifts ; many on the other hand, who are far 
removed from this error, but who are satisfied with 
vague and careless notions, have a sort of general idea 
of spiritual aid not being wholly withdrawn from Chris- 
tians, but bestowed in a much less degree than on the 
saints of the primitive times ; without seeking to deter- 
mine the measure, or the kind of spiritual assistance, to 
be reasonably hoped for by each class respectively, or 
the signs by which each might recognise its presence, 

And yet it might naturally be supposed, that, inscru- 
table as the nature of God must be to his creatures, and 
little as they can understand of the reasons and the 
modes of his dealings with them, at least we should be 
capable of knowing what the spiritual aid is that we are 
taught to look for, and commanded to pray and to strive 
for. The humblest peasant, who subsists by the la- 
bor of his hands, may be left ignorant indeed of the 
process by which corn vegetates in the earth, or sup- 
plies nutriment to the human frame ; but it is needful for 
his natural life that he should understand how to gain 
his daily bread, which he is taught to pray for, and to 
distinguish it from what is useless or noxious ; and it is 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



171 



no less needful that the plainest Christian should be able 
to understand how his spiritual life is to be supported, — 
the welfare of his soul secured ; and should be capable 
of guarding against any dangerous error on the subject. 

It is desirable, therefore, that both the resemblances 
and the differences between our condition and that of 
the primitive Christians, in respect of this point, should 
be as accurately laid down as possible, and should be 
frequently dwelt upon ; since the worst consequences 
may result from either underrating or overrating the spi- 
ritual aid to be expected by Christians of the present day. 

Thus much is generally admitted ; that the promise 
of the Holy Spirit extended to both classes of Chris- 
tians; but that the sensibly-miraculous gifts bestowed 
on the early Church have been long since withdrawn : 
and these are, usually, and very suitably, called the 
extraordinary gifts ; as bestowed at a particular time, 
and for an especial purpose ; and are thus distinguished 
from what are called the ordinary operations of the 
Spirit, as needful alike for all Christians, and at all 
times. A more particular consideration, however, of 
some of the several points of resemblance, and of dif- 
ference, between the two cases, is requisite for the 
purpose of guarding against some prevailing errors, and 
of calling attention to doctrines not always sufficiently 
noticed, or adequately developed. 

And this inquiry falls naturally under two heads, 
(which, however, cannot be kept entirely distinct) ; viz. 
1st, as to the different classes of gifts themselves ; and 
2dly, as to the tokens by which the presence of each is 
to be known — the way in which each kind of spiritual 
influence is to be recognised. 

§ 4. First, then, the display of " signs and wonders" 
in the primitive Church, constitutes one great distinc- 



172 



OX THE INFLUENCE 



tion between their case and ours r 1 but this distinction 
being acknowledged, we should consider attentively, 
on whom, and for what purposes, these miraculous 
gifts were bestowed ; for it is not unnatural, nor I be- 
lieve uncommon, to regard the persons who were thus 
gifted, as holier, and more highly favored of God, than 
Christians at the present day ; — as Saints, in some dif- 
ferent sense or degree from any thing that we are 
required or allowed to become. But an examination 
of the case will plainly show, that we have no reasons 
for regarding the Christians thus gifted as having any 
such advantage over us. It is not necessary to enume- 
rate and discuss the several kinds of extraordinary gifts ; 
it is plain that they were not such as can be supposed 
to have been bestowed for the direct benefit of the 
possessor. The gift of tongues, for instance, or of pro- 
phecy, or of healing the sick, could not, of themselves? 
and immediately, conduce to the salvation of the per- 
sons thus gifted. But more than this, they did not even 
afford proof that such persons were completely accept* 
able to God, and in a safe state in respect of their 
salvation ; for, strange as it may appear to us, there is 
no possibility of doubting that several of them not only 
incurred St. Paul's severe rebuke for their misconduct, 
but, among the rest, were censured for a vain and con- 
tentious display of these very miraculous endowments ; 
they showed a carnal mind, not only while possessed 
of extraordinary spiritual gifts, but even in the very 
employment of those gifts. 

It appears probable, indeed, that the apostles (who 
alone had this power) conferred some extraordinary 



] For it is not necessary at present to enter into an examination of 
the false pretensions of the Romanists, and of some other impostors 
and enthusiasts who have professed to work sensible miracles. 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



173 



gift or other on every one, without exception, of the 
converts who came in their way, as a token and pledge 
of their being in truth a holy people to the Lord. At 
least no mention is made of their bestowing these gifts 
on some and not on others ; and certainly, whether they 
made any selection or not, they did not, as we plainly 
find, confine the gifts to such as it was foreseen would 
make a right use of them. 

For what purpose, then, were these gifts bestowed ? 
Principally, we may conclude, for these three : 1st, for 
the satisfactory conviction and assurance of the minds 
of the possessors; 2dly, for the propagation of the reli- 
gion ; and, 3dly, for the edification of the Church. 

And, First, s-ome external sensible operations of the 
Spirit must have been highly important at least, to 
satisfy the minds of the first Christians of his actual 
presence among them. They had so far shaken off 
their Jewish and Heathen prejudices (prejudices which 
we of the present day can hardly bring ourselves ade- 
quately to estimate) as to receive the religion of Christ 
crucified, 44 to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
Greeks foolishness ;" they had acknowledged that the 
Eternal God, the Author and Ruler of the Universe, had 
been manifested in the flesh, incarnate in an obscure, 
despised, and persecuted peasant, who had been execu- 
ted as one of the vilest of criminals ; and on being 
baptized into this faith, they were further required to 
believe that they were thus 44 born again of water and 
of the Holy Spirit," — that He, the same all-present 
God, dwelt in an especial manner in the Church, of 
which they were become members, as in a most holy 
temple, and was ever at hand to sanctify and guide 
them. " Know ye not," says St. Paul, 44 that ye are the 
temple of the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in you V 
Now all this was so opposite to all their former notions, 
16* 



174 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



— so strange to all their habits of thought, that they 
might well need some special assurance of such a doc- 
trine as this last ; — some support against the uneasy 
doubts and suspicions which might suggest the ques- 
tion, "is the Lord among us, or not?" And such an 
assurance was graciously afforded them in the sensible 
testimony of his presence which God displayed, by 
conferring powers manifestly miraculous. Those, for 
instance, who recei ved the gift of speaking in, or of in- 
terpreting, a language they had never learned, could not 
suspect that they had been deceived by a false teacher, 
or that they were under the delusion of a heated imagi- 
nation : they would have ground for undoubting confi- 
dence, therefore, that they were indeed born of the 
Spirit, and living stones of that holy temple, not 
made with hands, in which he resides. Not, however, 
be it observed, that they were to regard their extraor- 
dinary gifts as the only, or as the most important, 
instance of spiritual influence, but as the proof and 
pledge of it ; the truly important benefit was, the sane- 
tification by the Spirit, with a view to eternal life ; 
the miraculous power was the seal and the earnest of 
that benefit,— the sign and notification, as it were, that 
the treasure had been bestowed,— not the treasure itself. 

Secondly, These extraordinary gifts were needful in 
various ways for the propagation of Christ's religion ; 
both to furnish those who preached it with credentials, 
as it were, from heaven, to prove the divine origin of 
the religion, and also to enable all nations to " hear in 
their own tongues the wonderful works of God." 

Thirdly, Divers extraordinary gifts (probably those 
designated as the " word of wisdom," « the word of 
knowledge," and " the word of prophecy,") were evi- 
dently needful for the edification of the infant Church ; 
for the supply of instruction, both in doctrines and in 



ojp THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



175 



moral duties, to those whose Divine Master had not left 
behind -him (like Moses) a book, containing the princi- 
ples of Christian faith and practice, but had left, instead, 
the promise of his Spirit, who should " lead them into 
all truth." 

Such, principally, appear to have been the peculiar 
wants, and such the peculiar supply of those wants, in 
the infant Church. We have the records of inspiration 
in the writings of the apostles and their followers, which 
supersede the necessity of inspiration in ourselves : we 
have the history of their miracles preserved, which, 
together with the result of the miracles, — the establish- 
ment and existence, at this day, of the religion, — afford 
a sufficient evidence of its truth, to all who are open to 
conviction ; since experience,— now, long experience? 
has proved that all attempts to account for its establish- 
ment by human means, are vain. And as the blaze of 
the pillar which guided the Israelites in the wilderness, 
and proved to them the Divine presence among them, 
was withdrawn when they were sufficiently convinced 
of that presence, and, as it were, familiar with the belief 
that the Lord was among them as their Protector and 
King, — the manifestation of " the glory of the Lord" 
being thenceforward enclosed within the most holy 
place, — so, the outward and sensible marks of God's 
presence in his Church, were gradually withdrawn, 
when sufficient evidence had been afforded of that 
presence ; which is still not less real or less effectual 
than before ; and which is no longer miraculously dis- 
played, only because it has been already sufficiently 
proved. m 

m I am indebted for this remark, and for several others in the present 
Essay, to a valuable article in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, on the 
Origin and first Propagation of Christianity ; the writer of which (Rev. 
S. Hinds) is about to present it to the public in a separate publication. 



(76 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



The extraordinary gifts were probably withdrawn 
gradually, in proportion as the structure of which they 
were the temporary support gradually acquired con- 
sistency. We have, accordingly, nothing recorded on 
the subject ; indeed, much has come down to us respect- 
ing miracles, pretended to have been wrought long after 
the apostolic age, which we have good reason for re- 
garding as fabulous. The sacred writers, however, 
furnish us with grounds for at least a highly probable 
conjecture, it was through the laying on of the hands 
of the apostles only, that extraordinary gifts were for 
the most part conferred ; as may be proved from seve- 
ral parts of the New Testament, particularly the account 
in the Acts (chap, viii.) of the preaching of the Gospel 
by Philip the Deacon, to the Samaritans ; who were 
afterwards favored with a visit, chiefly, as it appears* 
for this express purpose, by the apostles Peter and 
John. And the same may be collected from the open- 
ing of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. 

Such then being the mode in which, exclusively, 
powers were conveyed, (with the exception of a very 
few cases, including, of course, those of the apostles 
themselves.) the result must have been, that when all 
the apostles had terminated their course on earth, all 
the channels must have been stopped through which 
this stream had hitherto flowed ; and as the last gene- 
ration dropped off, one by one, of such as had been thus 
gifted, this extraordinary manifestation of the Spirit 
became extinct. 

§ 5. This extraordinary manifestation, then, consti- 
tutes one important difference between the early Chris- 
tians and ourselves ; but the corresponding point of 
resemblance is one of far higher importance : for we 
have no reason to suppose that that spiritual influence, 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



177 



which is conferred for the benefit of the individual 
Christian, — for his moral improvement and purification, 
— -for his support and guidance in the road to eternal 
life, — is bestowed in any less degree, on sincere Chris- 
tians, at the present day, than formerly. Now this 
surely is of incomparably higher importance than the 
miraculous gifts we have been speaking of. These last 
without the other, without, that is, the proper use hav- 
ing been made of the other, would be utterly worthless ; 
the sanctifying influence of the Spirit, if we so walk 
after it as to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, hath 
the "end of everlasting life." Many, says our Saviour, 
shall say in that day, " Lord, we have in thy name cast 
out devils, and in thy name done many mighty works ; 
then will I say unto them, I know you not ; depart from 
me, all ye workers of iniquity." .... And again, "in 
this rejoice not, that the devils are subject unto you; 
but rather rejoice, because your names are written in 
heaven." And St. Paul in like manner, when he has 
been enumerating and comparing together the various 
extraordinary gifts, which had been a subject of emula- 
tion and dissension among the Corinthian Christians, 
concludes by utterly depreciating all of them in com- 
parison of that which he calls " a more excellent way." 
This he designates by the word ayatf-r\, which in most 
places is rendered "love," but in the passage in ques- 
tion " charity." It appears, however, to have been 
employed in this place to denote collectively all the 
sanctifying efficacy, — all of what we call the ordinary 
operations of the Holy Spirit ; this gift being at once 
the great proof and instance of Christ's love to his 
Church, the ground of the love of Christians towards 
their Master, and also the bond of their brotherly love 
towards each other, not as fellow-creatures merely, but 
as fellow-members of Christ's body, The circum- 



178 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



stance of the apostle's setting ayowrtg above faith and hope 
(iridns and not merely as the greatest of the three, 

but as including the other two, because it " Jiopeth all 
things, and believeth all things," (rfavra sXrfi^ei, tfavroL 
tfrfrsusi) seems to indicate that he was not in this case 
confining his view to Christian benevolence alone ; 
and if any one will compare the fruits of ayarfy), as 
enumerated in the 13th chapter of the First Epistle 
to the Corinthians, with " the fruits of the Spirit in 
the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, in the 
original, he will perceive such a striking coincidence in 
the Greek words employed in the two passages, (much 
more striking than an English translation exhibits,) as 
will leave little doubt that the same train of thought was 
in the writer's mind in both instances. 

It may appear superfluous, however, to adduce Scrip- 
tural proofs of what is in itself so obvious as the superi- 
or value of sanctifying grace to miraculous endowments. 
But as long as language is employed by mankind to ex- 
press their thoughts, there will always be a danger of 
their thoughts being influenced by language; and unless 
an especial attention is directed to this danger, the best- 
chosen expressions will ever be liable insensibly to 
become a snare to us. The ordinary and the extraor- 
dinary operations of the Holy Spirit have been very 
fitly so termed; but these words are likely, if we are 
not on our guard against the danger, to suggest to us, 
gradually and imperceptibly, an erroneous idea. Extra- 
ordinary abilities place a man much above one of ordi- 
nary ; extraordinary merit is something much greater 
and better than ordinary ; and the like in many other 
cases. Such an employment, therefore, of those words, 
is apt to lead men insensibly to form an indistinct no- 
tion of some very superior advantage possessed by those 
endowed with the ordinary gifts of the Spirit; espe* 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



179 



cially as the title of saints is commonly applied in 
Scripture to the early Christians, while by us it is limit- 
ed to a few of the most eminently pious that are re- 
corded. If one were to even hint at the possibility of 
any man's becoming, in the present day, as perfect a 
Christian as one of the apostles, — of any set of Chris- 
tians now, attaining an equality w r ith the best of those 
primitive Christians, — becoming saints in as high a de- 
gree as those who are usually so called, — the very idea 
would be reprobated by many persons as an almost 
impious presumption ; though in fact there is much 
more presumption in expecting God's eternal favor, 
while we are content to remain inferior. 

Not that men deliberately assent to the proposition, 
that the power of working miracles is a better thing 
than a pure and holy mind ; nor that they can be igno- 
rant, if they are but moderately versed in Scripture, of 
the recorded imperfections of many thus gifted, even in 
their manner of exercising these very gifts ; but the use 
of the word extraordinary, together with the percepti- 
ble and striking character of these endowments, and 
our habit of prizing the most highly what is rare, tend 
to leave a sort of vague impression on the mind, of 
some pre-eminent sanctity in those who were partakers 
of them, above what is attainable in the present day. 
The splendid accompaniment which testified to them 
the reality of the spiritual influence bestowed, is apt to 
enhance in our minds the value of the benefit thus at- 
tested, above that which is still placed within the Chris- 
tian's reach. But if we attentively consider the case, 
we shall be convinced that the Lord has not given to 
the one class of Christians any advantage over the other, 
in that which tends to the spiritual welfare of the indi- 
vidual Christian, and leads to the salvation of his soul ; 
— that his promise to be with his Church always, and to 



180 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



dwell spiritually in the hearts of those who love him 
and keep his saying, extends equally to all who equally 
strive to fulfil that, the condition of it ; — and that our 
situation resembles that of the primitive Christians in 
all that is essential, and differs from it only in circum- 
stances which were temporary and comparatively unim- 
portant. 

^ 6. Hitherto, I have been comparing together the 
case of the early Christians and our own, principally 
with a view to the intrinsic character of the spiritual 
gifts themselves, w T hich were promised. I shall pro- 
ceed (according to the division mentioned, page 171) to 
offer some remarks on the signs by which the two 
classes of gifts — the influence of the Spirit in these 
two modes of operation, the extraordinary, and the 
ordinary, — are, respectively, to be recognised and as- 
certained. We shall hence be led to perceive some 
further points of difference and of resemblance, between 
the condition of the first Christians and our own ; and 
may thus be more effectually guarded against each of 
those opposite errors, which are but too prevalent ; that 
of neglecting or depreciating those inestimable gifts, 
which are placed within our reach ; and that of pre- 
tending to, or expecting such as are not promised. 

When our Lord said to his disciples, " If ye have 
faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is 
done to the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the 
sea, it shall be done," it is plain that the faith, which in 
this and in several other passages he was inculcating on 
them, is not to be understood of mere belief in Jesus as 
the Messiah, or in the doctrines of his religion ; or of 
trust, generally, in divine power and goodness. It evi- 
dently has reference to miraculous powers, such as are 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



ibl 



not bestowed on all Christians ; though faith, in an- 
other sense, is required by all. But in this and other 
declarations of like import, there can be little doubt that 
our Saviour had in view, confidence in those admoni- 
tions and injunctions which his disciples and many 
others of the early Christians received, authorizing and 
empowering them to work certain miracles. Their 
extraordinary gifts were not at their ow r n command. 
Even St. Paul, who performed so many mighty works, 
and, among others, possessed the gift of healing in a 
high degree, yet was not always permitted to exert this 
gift, even in favor of his dearest friends. 11 A special 
commission seems to have been requisite to enable 
them to exercise their delegated powers. And this was 
conveyed to them, — their permission and call to per- 
form miracles, was announced to them, — in various 
ways. During our Lord's abode on earth in the flesh, 
he himself, whose authority they could not doubt, 
uttered commands to this purpose with his . own lips. 
Besides the genera] commission given to the apostles 
and to the seventy, we find him on one occasion giving 
a precise direction to Peter to cast a hook into the sea, 
and to take the fish that first came up, in whose mouth 
he should find the piece of money (a Stater) which the 
exigency required : in another instance, he, at the re- 
quest of the same apostle, commissioned him to come 
and meet him on the surface of the water. St. Peter 
seems to have we\\ understood that his Master's com- 
mand was at once requisite and sufficient to enable him 
to f read the waves without sinking. But even after he 
had begun to experience the efficacy of that command, 
his faith was shaken by alarm, and he began to sink, 
and was reproached by his Master for his doubts. The 



n See 2 Tim. iv. 20. 

17 



182 



OX THE INFLUENCE 



faith in which he was in this instance found deficient, 
seems to have been precisely that which our Lord on 
other occasions so earnestly inculcated. 

After our Lord's ascension, some other kind of indi- 
cation must have been given, by which those who were 
on each occasion authorized to work any miracle, might 
know that they were thus empowered. A species of 
revelation in short, must have been bestowed, inform- 
ing them what they were enabled and required to per- 
form ; and in this revelation they were required to have 
a full faith. Whatever mode may have been, in each 
case, employed for conveying this revelation, the indi- 
cation given must always have been something in which 
they could not be mistaken, — something as free from 
all doubt or suspicion as the words which they heard 
Jesus utter while with them ; since otherwise, this un- 
hesitating faith could not reasonably have been required 
of them. It must have been something, therefore, 
which could not possibly be confounded with any sug- 
gestions of their own minds. 

This is a point concerning which we have no precise 
statements in Scripture : but the nature of the case puts 
it, I think, beyond a doubt, that the intimations or signs 
we are speaking of, must always have been accompa- 
nied by, or connected with, something sensibly miracu- 
lous. For otherwise we must suppose the disciples to 
have been left exposed to a double danger ; that of 
mistaking any remarkable dream, or impression on their 
waking minds from natural causes, for a communica- 
tion from the Spirit : in which case they would have 
given faith to a delusion, and have been disappointed 
in their expectations, contrary to our Lord's express 
promise ; and that of mistaking, on the other hand, 
some heavenly communication for an ordinary dream 
or thought : in which case they would have failed in 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



183 



faith without' any fault of their own. God certainly 
would not leave his servants in any such uncertainty ; 
and they could not possibly be secured from it in any 
way but by the intervention of sensible miracles. 

I have said, however, that the intimation in ques- 
tion must be either accompanied by, or connected with, 
some sensible miracle, because such a proof to the 
party concerned, of his not being deluded, as would be 
necessary in the first instance, might be dispensed 
with afterwards, when some particular mode of commu- 
nication had been once stamped, as it were, with the 
signature of divinity, by some plainly miraculous ac- 
companiment. A particular sort of internal sensation, 
for instance, or mental emotion, which a man might 
experience, however strikingly different it might be 
from his ordinary feelings, he would be very rash in 
regarding as a signal of inspiration ; since he could not 
possibly tell that it was not a symptom of disease, or 
of some other natural change ; but if he experienced 
something of this kind in immediate connexion with a 
miraculous phenomenon, to which his senses, and those 
of others, could testify, the recurrence of this peculiar 
sensation or perception afterwards, would then be of 
itself justly regarded by him as a heaven-sent intima- 
tion. For instance, a man may dream, or, if in an ex- 
cited state of mind, may fancy, that he hears a voice 
addressing him, when there is no such thing ; but when 
St. Paul, on his road to Damascus, was struck to the 
ground, and blinded by a blaze of light, he thus received 
the assurance of a sensible miracle; then it was that he 
heard himself addressed in the awful voice of the Lord 
Jesus. He afterwards, as he tells us, received from 
him, at various times, revelations concerning the Gos- 
pel. Now if, as is most probable, this revelation was 
communicated to him by that same voice — even though 



184 



OX THE INFLUENCE 



unaccompanied by the supernatural light — a voice 
which could not but be strongly impressed on his memo- 
ry, he would be in no more danger of delusion, than 
any of us, in holding communication with a well-known 
friend. 

Again, when two of the disciples met with their 
Master lately risen from the grave, as they were going 
to Emmaus, their senses were at first preternaturally 
obscured, so that they did not recognise him ; but they 
seemed to have experienced, while he was talking with 
them, a certain remarkable inward sensation, not no- 
ticed by them at the time, which they described by their 
44 hearts burning within them f now this may indeed 
have been no more than a natural and ordinary emotion, 
elicited by the interesting character of the discourse 
they were hearing : it may 9 however, have been some- 
thing peculiar : and the remarkable circumstances of 
the case (especially their eyes being " holden that they 
should not know him,") render this not very improba- 
ble. It is certainly not impossible ; and therefore at 
any rate we may frame such a supposition for illustra- 
tion's sake : suppose then, as is at least conceivable, 
this were a sensation altogether different from any thing 
they had ever before experienced ; its recurrence on 
any subsequent occasion, would be justly regarded by 
them, from the miraculous circumstances accompanying 
its first occurrence, as a token of their Lord's presence, 
though unseen, and a notice that they were to regard 



- Whether in this particular instance the fact were or were not such 
as I have supposed, makes no difference to the present argument ; the 
object being only to illustrate my meaning. It is worth observing, 
however, that our Lord must have had some design in thus presenting 
himself to his disciples invisible ; invisible, that is, as their Master, 
Jesus : and his design, or at least part of it, may have been, to teach 
them the. meaning of a certain peculiar internal impression, denoting 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



185 



as a communication from his Spirit, the ideas convey- 
ed to their minds through this vehicle. 

But whenever (as has often been the case with those 
of an enthusiastic temperament in later times) we find 
a person strongly suspecting that he has received a 
revelation, or fully convinced of it, from feeling (as they 
sometimes express it) a certain thought forcibly borne 
in upon his mind, we may be quite sure that he is de- 
luding himself. God would never leave any doubt, or 
any reasonable ground for doubt, on the mind of any- 
one to whom he might think fit to impart a revelation ; 
he doubtless never did, nor ever will, communicate any- 
one of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, without 
attesting, to the person or persons concerned, its reality, 
by the stamp of some sensible miracle. 

St. Paul, accordingly, we find enabled to distinguish, 
and careful to distinguish, the fullest convictions of his 
own understanding, from Divine revelations. During 
his last journey to Jerusalem that is recorded in the 
Acts, he was strongly impressed with the expectation 
that he should there close his career by a violent death. 
He took leave of the Elders of Ephesus with an assur- 
ance of his complete conviction that they should see his 
face no more ; but he knew that this his conjecture 
(which, all things considered, was a very probable one, 
though the event did not agree with it) was merely a 
conjecture, and not a revelation. He had received a 
divine admonition to take this journey, together with a 
warning of approaching persecutions ; but the ultimate 
event was as yet hidden from him : . " Behold, I go bound 



his presence in the Spirit. The sensation and its peculiarity, their 
own consciousness would testify ; its meaning would be explained to 
them by their Lord's afterwards opening their eyes, so that they 
knew who it was that had been with them 
17* 



186 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



in the Spirit p unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things 
that shall befall me there ; save that the Holy Ghost 
witnesseth in every city that bonds and afflictions abide 
me." 

Inspirations, however, and other miraculous gifts, we 
have (as has been already observed) no reason to ex- 
pect in these days. Not, however, that we are author- 
ized to assert confidently that nothing of the kind ever 
will recur; but thus far we may be confident, that if it 
does, it will be accompanied by sufficient evidence to 
distinguish clearly a miraculous interposition, from im- 
posture or delusion. 

§ 7. The signs then by which the extraordinary gifts 
of the Spirit were announced, constitute (as well as 
those gifts themselves) a point of difference between the 
early Christians and their successors : there is a resem- 
blance, and, as we have every reason to conclude, an 
equality, between the condition of the infant Church 
and our own, in respect of that far more important 
point, the ordinary grace of the Holy Spirit operating 
in the sanctification of the heart. What then is the 
sign of this gift? — the token by which we may be as- 
sured of " God's working in us, both to will and to do, 
of his good pleasure ?" This operation of the Spirit, 
there is every reason to believe, not only is, but always 
was, imperceptible, and undistinguishable, except by its 
fruits, from the ordinary workings of the human mind. 
For if it was suggested to the mind of one of the first 
Christians, that he ought to do this or that, and sug- 
gested in such a manner (which sometimes was the case) 
as to afford him a satisfactory assurance of an immedi- 



p That isj I imagine, knowing by the revelation of the Divine 
Spirit, that he was to be bound. 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



187 



ate command from the Holy Ghost, this would clearly 
be a case of revelation, and, consequently, would be- 
long to the other class of spiritual gifts ; — not to that 
which we are now considering. But we may be sure 
that they were not, even the most highly gifted of them, 
thus guided by immediate revelation in all the actions 
of their lives ; but were left to work out their own sal- 
vation with fear and trembling ; though still encouraged 
to do this by the assurance that God wrought in them. 
They were accordingly not uniformly infallible ; for 
we find a dissension arising between Paul and Barna- 
bas ; nor was this settled by any miraculous interposi- 
tion, or authoritative declaration of the Spirit, to either 
of them. And again, we find St. Paul withstanding and 
censuring St. Peter ; but at the same time using argu- 
ments to convince him of his error ; not charging him 
with having wilfully rebelled against any express imme- 
diate revelation respecting the particular act in question. 

In fact, the early Christians could hardly have been 
moral agents, if they had not been left watchfully to 
regulate their own conduct according to the best of 
their judgment, but had in every case recognised the 
immediate dictates of the Holy Spirit forbidding or 
enjoining each action of their lives. And yet they were 
taught that in all their conduct the assistance of God's 
Spirit was requisite, and was promised to them ; our 
Lord himself told them that without him they " could 
do nothing and St. Paul's encouragement to them to 
work out their own salvation, is, 44 it is God that work- 
eth in yon." 

But how then were they, and how are we, to know 
what are these suggestions of the sanctifying Spirit ? 
Our Lord himself seems to instruct us that we are to 
judge by the effects, when he says, 44 the wind (tfvaujwa) 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 



188 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither 
it goeth ; so is every one that is born (rou tfvsvparos) 
of the Spirit." He here seems to have in view the 
ordinary and universal operations of the Holy Spirit, 
— those which extend to " every one that is born of the 
Spirit," without which, 44 no one can enter into the 
kingdom of Heaven." And as we judge of the direc- 
tion of any wind that blows (though itself invisible) by 
its effects, — by the direction in which it impels the 
bodies moved by it, — so we must decide whether we 
are in each instance influenced by Gob's Holy Spirit, 
or by our own corrupt desires and the spirit of the evil 
one, by observing the direction in which we are im- 
pelled ; whether to holiness or to sin, — towards a con- 
formity or an opposition to the example of our great 
Master, the word of his inspired servants, and the 
moral law which is written on our conscience, though 
the characters be so far obscured as not to be traced 
without diligent study. St. Paul, in like manner, when 
exhorting his converts to be 44 led by the Spirit," and 
to 44 walk after the Spirit," evidently refers them to a 
similar test, by enumerating the principal of the fruits 
of the Spirit, and contrasting them with 44 the works 
of the flesh," w r hich, he says, 44 are manifest." 

From these considerations it will appear how much 
those are in error, who imagine that such as have at- 
tained a very high degree of Christian perfection, and 
are eminently under the sanctifying influence of the 
Holy Spirit, will be able distinctly to perceive, by a 
peculiarity of immediate sensation, and thus to distin- 
guish from their own natural thoughts, the suggestions 
of the Holy Ghosts If this his ordinary operation, — 



i This error is ably exposed in a very sensible and well- written arti- 
cle in the Quarterly Review, (No. 59, Art. 8, April, 1824.) I am sorry 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



189 



this grace which guides and assists the Christian " to 
will and to do what is well-pleasing to God," always 
was (as there seems good rseaon to conclude) insensi- 
ble, we may be well assured that it always will be so. 
As on the one hand, even the lowest of the extraordi- 
nary spiritual gifts alluded to by St. Paul must always 
have been accompanied with a distinct manifestation of 
its super-human origin, so as to prevent the possibility 
of its being mistaken for an exercise of any natural 
power ; so, on the other hand, even the very highest 
degree of purifying grace, is, and always was, undis- 
tinguishable from the exercise of the natural powers* 
except by the holiness which is the result. The " car- 
nal mind," ancrthe " spiritual mind," are to be known ? 
respectively, by " the works of the flesh," and the 
"fruits of the Spirit." It is, 1st, by the inclinations 
of our hearts ; 2dly, by our deliberations towards the 
accomplishment of our wishes ; and, 3dly, by the ac- 
tions which are the result of these, that we must know 
what spirit we are of; for it is from God that 44 all 
holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do 
proceed." 

Another error, opposite to the one just considered, is 
that of those who acknowledge, in general terms, the 
existence and the necessity of the ordinary operations 
of the Spirit, but explain them away in each particu- 
lar case ; and thus completely nullify the doctrine. 
They allow that Christians are to expect the sanctify- 
ing grace of the Holy Ghost ; but each separate work 
in which this Divine agency can possibly operate, they 

not to be able to bestow equally unqualified praise on another article. 
(No. 61, Art. 2, Dec. 1824,) apparently by the same hand, and on the 
same general subject. The author's just dread of one extreme, has 
led him to use expressions which may be thought to favor an opposite 
extreme; not less erroneous or less dangerous. 



190 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



attribute exclusively and entirely to some other cause. 
If a man resist temptation, they attribute this to his 
sense of the folly and danger and sinfulness of yielding 
to it ; and thence deny that spiritual influence was con- 
cerned in the case : if he improve in religious know- 
ledge, they attribute this, exclusively, to his diligence 
in learning, and to the advantage of good instruction ; 
and, accordingly, contend that there is no need in such 
a case to suppose spiritual influence concerned: if 
he does any act, or entertains any sentiment, which 
right reason would approve, they regard this as a proof 
that to right reason alone it is to be referred ; and by 
this means they exclude, one by one, every possible in- 
stance in which the ordinary grace of the Spirit can 
operate ; for any thing which could not be traced to 
any natural cause, would clearly be miraculous. But a 
doctrine which is true generally, cannot be false in 
every particular instance. In truth, what we mean by 
the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit, is his opera- 
tion through second causes, — his aid to our endeavors, 
—his blessing upon the means of grace. We are taught 
to pray for our daily bread as Gob's gift, though it is 
not, like manna, showered miraculously from the skies; 
and every Christian thought and word and deed is no 
less " from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
lights," though it come not accompanied with fiery 
tongues and the " sound of a mighty wind." Its Chris- 
tian goodness is the sign of its spiritual origin. 

$ 8. Such then is, and ever was, the criterion to 
Christians of their being " led by the Spirit." The 
sign of their having a claim to this spiritual guidance — 
to the ordinary operation of the Spirit — of their being 
admitted to a share in the offer of this grace, I cannot 
conceive to be, or ever to have been, any other than 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



19J 



their baptism into the Christian faith. There are some, 
indeed, who represent baptism as a sign only of admis- 
sion into the visible Church, and not, necessarily, of 
spiritual regeneration. But the shortest and most deci- 
sive answer to these persons appears to be, that they 
are making a distinction without a difference. Such as 
the Church is described in Scripture, viz. 44 as the body 
of Christ Jesus," as the " Temple of the Holy Ghost 
which dwelleth in it," to speak of admittance into this 
Church, without an admission to the privileges bestowed 
on it, seems a contradiction in terms. The promises of 
Christ are made to the Society of which he is the 
head ; and to individuals, not as men, but as members 
of that Society. If (in the case of temporal goods) any 
one is admitted a member of any endowed society, he 
is thereby admitted to a share of its revenues : it would 
be a contradiction to disjoin them. The visible Church 
of Christ is a society endowed by him with the richest 
privileges : but then, it rests with each member of that 
society to avail himself aright of those privileges, or to 
neglect or abuse them. 

The case of Christians is in this respect analogous to 
that of God's people of old. (See Essay III.) All the 
Israelites were admitted into covenant with the Lord ; 
and, being made thus his 44 peculiar," " holy," and 
46 elect" people, were entitled to all the privileges and 
promises of that covenant, though it rested with each 
individual to make a good or an ill use of these advan- 
tages. The Lord was ready to perform his part, if they 
would perform theirs ; but if they refused this, still they 
were not allowed to draw back from the engagement, 
but incurred the heavier judgment for their disobedi- 
ence. The rebellious were not permitted, as they de- 
sired, 44 to return into Egypt," but were cut off in the 
wilderness. 



192 



OX THE INFLUENCE 



And the infants of the Israelites were admitted into 
this covenant by the rite of circumcision, at the age of 
eight days ; though they were, of course, then incapa- 
ble of immediately enjoying or understanding their 
privileges. If this had been sufficiently attended to, it 
might have obviated the difficulties that have been 
raised from the consideration that such as are baptized 
in infancy cannot be, at once, nor till they become moral 
agents, actually influenced by the Holy Spirit : whence 
it has been inferred by some, that the new birth does not 
necessarily take place at baptism : while the Anabap- 
tists (who alone act consistently with these views) con- 
tending that we should not put asunder what God has 
joined together, — the sign, and the ''inward spiritual 
grace, or thing signified," — accordingly defer baptism 
till the party is arrived at years of discretion. 

But after all, there is no more difficulty in the case 
than in one which occurs every day — that of an infant 
inheriting an estate. He is incapable, at the time, of 
using or comprehending the advantage ; but still it is 
his ; he is not hereafter to acquire the title and claim to 
it ; but he will hereafter become capable of understand- 
ing his claim and employing his wealth ; and he will be- 
come responsible at the same time for the use made of it. 

Christians in like manner are called upon at their 
peril, to make the best use of their advantages, as soon 
as they become capable of understanding them : and if 
they fail to do this, they are not on that account es- 
teemed as never having been admitted to those advan- 
tages, but, on the contrary, incur, on that very ground, 
the heavier condemnation. What, " know ye not," 
says St. Paul, " that ye are the temple of the Holy 
Ghost which dwelleth in you ? and if any man defile 
(<pt)sipsj) the temple of God, him will God destroy," 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



193 



It is then, and ever was, a matter of faith, to believe 
in the continual sanctifying presence of God with his 
Church ; and in " the communion of saints," viz. the par- 
ticipation of all Christians, as far as they will avail them- 
selves of the offer, in the assistance of that Holy Spirit, 
from which every good and every perfect gift proceeds. r 

1 Doubtless one of the objects of our Lord, in the institution of the 
Eucharist, "was to remind Christians of this " communion" or fellowship 
of the Holy Ghost, and to impress it habitually on their minds. For 
with a view to the mere commemoration of our Lord's sacrifice, and 
expression of our faith in his atonement, the mere breaking of the 
bread, and pouring out of the wine, might have been sufficient : but 
the bread and wine, are by Christ's appointment eaten and drunk; 
in conformity with his declaration, ' f except ye eat the flesh of the Son 
of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you :" il He that eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, the same dwelleth in me, and I in 
him." What then is it of which the devout communicants are really 
partakers, under the outward symbols of bread and wine 7 Surely of 
the Spirit of Christ ; for, " hereby know we that he dwelleth in us. 
by his Spirit which he hath given us," and hence St. Paul's ex- 
pression, that we are all made to drink {czoTiadvfxev, 1 Cor. xii. 13) into 
one Spirit." 

This obvious interpretation the Romanists (and afterwards the Lu- 
therans) were led to overlook, partly at least, no doubt, from the habit 
of keeping too much out of sight the divine Unity, and of regarding 
the Son and the Holy Ghost too much as distinct Beings ; so that 
to partake of Christ must, they thought, be something different 
from partaking of the Holy Spirit. Hence they inferred that the 
communicants received the literal, material, body and blood of 
Christ ; and they accordingly boast that they alone interpret the 
Scripture declarations not figuratively. There is no need to adduce 
the well-known refutations of this extravagant doctrine; but there 
is one answer to it, which is usually overlooked, and which goes 
to overthrow the foundation of it ; viz. that if we could actually re- 
ceive into our mouths the very flesh and blood of Christ, this could 
not, of itself be productive of any benefit to the soul : it might, if 
God willed it, be the appointed token and means of our receiving such 
benefit; even as the water of the pool of Siloam was, of restored sight; 
but it could not itself confer any spiritual advantage, any more than 
water could cure blindness, It must, therefore, after all, be in a spirit- 

18 



194 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



In this respect our case and that of the early Chris- 
tians coincide. But there is this point of difference 

ual and figurative sense that Christ says, " my flesh is meat indeed, 
and my blood is drink indeed ;" if they were literally eaten and drunk, 
they must still be the sign of something else, represented and conveyed 
by them. So that the violence done to Scripture and to reason, for 
the sake of avoiding a figurative interpretation, does not, after all, even 
accomplish that object. 

The error of transubstantiation the English Church has guarded 
against most carefully, by declaring that the bread and wine remain 
unchanged, — that they are only a sign of Christ's body and blood, — 
and that it is only "after a spiritual manner' 7 that his body and blood 
are received by the faithful. But it would have been better perhaps 
to have added to this, for the benefit of the unlearned, a statement 
that the bread and wine not only are merely a sign, but are a sign of 
a sign : i. e. that they represent our Lord's flesh and blood, and that 
his flesh and blood again are a sign of something else. This is indeed 
implied, when it is said that Christ's body and blood are " spiritually 
received," and that it " strengthens and refreshes the soul;" for it is - 
manifest that literal, material, flesh and blood cannot be spiritually 
received, or refresh the soul. Eut for the sake of avoiding those vague 
and confused ideas, which are apt to lead ultimately to the regarding of 
the Eucharist as a mere memorial, it might have been better to state 
distinctly what it is that the faithful communicants ' really partake of. 
That which strengthens and refreshes the soul of Christians, as bread 
and wine do man's body, is "the Spirit of Christ," whereby "he 
dwelleth in us, and we in him ;" for " it is the Spirit that quicken- 
eth ; (fyoTroiovv) the flesh profiteth nothing." John vi. 63. And as it 
is the soul or spirit of a man that animates (quickeneth) his body, 
which would otherwise be lifeless ; so Christians, who are them- 
selves the figurative body of Christ, are quickened, — receive life and 
vigor — " strength and refreshment," from the Spirit which dwelleth 
in them ; they " are the temple of the Holy Ghost ;" " the last Adam 
was made a quickening spirit." And since it is as members of the 
holy community that individual Christians obtain this gift, of this cir- 
cumstance they are reminded by their partaking together of the Lord's 
Supper, — u the communion (koivuvio) of the blood of Christ :" (1 Cor. 
x. 16,) "we have all been, in one spirit, baptized into one body;" 
(£. e. all admitted by baptism — being born of water and of the Spirit, 
— into the Church, which is Christ's body) "and have all been made 
iodrinkinto one Spirit." 1 Cor. xii. 13. 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



195 



between the two ; that this was not to them, as to us, 
the great trial of their faith ; because in the infant 
Church, the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit 
served as a visible token to convince them of his actual 
presence. The same Spirit still resides in the Church ; 
but like the Shechinah concealed within the Holy of 
Holies, it is screened from our view : w r e walk wholly 
" by faith, and not by sight." They, however, had 
counterbalancing trials:' the fellowship in the Spirit 
of Jews and Gentiles ; — to the one party the admission 
of the unclean Heathen as fellow-heirs with the favored 
ehildren of Abraham ; — to the other, the reception of a 
religion and of a Divine Master, from a nation of ob- 
scure barbarians, despised and detested for superstition, 
both that Master and his ministers being rejected and 
abhorred even by that nation itself ; — in short, " Christ 
crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
Greeks foolishness," constituted a trial to their faith 
which we can hardly estimate. The indignities which 
Jesus suffered, who was thence esteemed stricken, smit- 
ten of God, and afflicted, — the contradiction w^hich the 
new religion presented to all the fondly-cherished hopes 
of the Jew, to all that the Gentile most revered in phi- 
losophy, and was most attached to in his religion and 
in his habits of life, — the inveterate malice of persecu- 
tors, — the scorn and derision of the wisest and greatest, 
— the censures, entreaties, and lamentations, of kindred 
and friends, — all these, and numberless other circum- 
stances revolting to every prejudice — every feeling — 
every habit of the new convert, formed a trial to his 
faith, of which we can form but a faint idea ; and 
under which it was needful that his gracious Master 
should support him, by a constant visible display of his 
presence. 



196 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



§ 9. It is the part of Christians of the present day 9 
on the one hand not to distrust the reality of that pre- 
sence, because it is no longer thus miraculously display- 
ed ; nor, on the other hand, to require or look for sucli 
a miraculous manifestation as God has thought fit no 
longer to bestow. How we should have conducted 
ourselves, if placed in the circumstances of the primi- 
tive Christians, can be known only to the Searcher of 
hearts ; how we shall conduct ourselves under the cir- 
cumstances in which we are actually placed, — how we 
shall withstand our own trials, and make use of our 
own advantages, — is the point which most concerns us ; 
since of that we shall have to give an account. 

And if we would profit by the example of the most 
eminent of God's servants, we must in some respects 
reverse their procedure, in conformity with the re- 
versed circumstances in which we are placed. We 
must endeavor to learn and to perform, as far as we are 
able, by our natural powers, under the blessing of God's 
ordinary operations, what the apostles were taught, or 
were empowered to do, by miraculous gifts : and the 
instruction they derived from their own, or from each 
other's immediate inspiration, we must seek to obtain 
in the records of that inspiration which they have left 
us. They could in many instances infer this or that to 
be right or true, from its being the suggestion of the 
Spirit ; which was attested, to themselves and to 
others, by miracles : we, on the contrary, can only 
prove any thing to be the suggestion of the Spirit, by 
its being right and true ; and the evidence of this, must 
be sought in Scripture, — that record of the dictates of 
the Holy Ghost, which is the appointed standard for 
deciding what does proceed from the Author of all 
good. If our life and faith are agreeable to the Gospel, 
this is the ground of confidence that they are right; 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



197 



and if right, they must come from that sanctifying and 
enlightening and supporting grace, which alone can 
raise to life the dead in sin, and purify man's corrupt 
nature, and effectually open his eyes to the truth, and 
" strengthen the feeble knees" to walk in God's paths. 
This spiritual assistance is not, like the other, a proof 
on which to build and support our faith, but is itself a 
matter of faith ; — a truth to be believed on God's as-r 
surances. And thos« persons, therefore, are in fact 
wanting in faith, (of which they often pretend to a pre- 
eminent degree) who are not satisfied with this assur- 
ance, but look for, and pretend to, sensible experiences, 
which are to afford a direct and decisive demonstration 
to their minds of their being under spiritual influence : 
"except they see signs and wonders, they will not 
believe." 

We are to look then to the Holy Scriptures which 
the Spirit of Christ inspired, not indeed (according to 
the notion some have maintained) as constituting the 
only assistance that the Holy Ghost now bestows on 
the Church, but as constituting the ultimate standard 
by which we are to judge how far we have received 
and are profiting by that assistance. It is not in these 
only that he is presents but it is by these, as a test, that 
his presence is in each case to be known. 

It is, indeed, only through the enlightening and sup<- 
porting grace of the Holy Spirit, that even the Scrip- 
tures themselves can be consulted with benefit. If we 
study them with a mind biassed by any of those nu- 
merous prejudices and infirmities which beset our frail 
nature, we shall receive the heavenly light of God's 
word through a discolored medium * % and its rays will 
thence give an unnatural tint to every thing on which 
they are shed. Many different persons, accordingly, 
have arrived at different conclusions (all of which con- 
18* 



198 



ON THE INFLUENCE 



sequently could not be correct), though they have appli- 
ed, apparently at least, the very test that has been recom- 
mended : they have compared their opinions and prac- 
tices with the standard of God's word, and finding them 
agree, have concluded them to be the suggestions of 
the Spirit which dictated that word ; and yet this 
agreement has perhaps been {must have been in some 
instances) the result of a partial and prejudiced inter- 
pretation of Scripture ; they may have suffered those 
opinions and practices to bend the ruler by which they 
were to be measured. 

But how, after all (it may be said), is this danger to 
be completely avoided ? Are we not involved in a 
vicious circle, if we are to judge whether we are under 
the influence of the Spirit by consulting the Scriptures, 
and yet cannot, without that influence, interpret aright 
those very Scriptures ? How, in short, are we to arrive 
at a completely satisfactory decision as to our own 
sentiments and conduct? 

The danger is one against which we never can be 
completely secured in this life : the decisions we attain 
can never be wholly exempt from all ground for doubt; 
in other words, we must not expect, with our utmost 
efforts and prayers, to attain perfect infallibility. If we 
could, this life would hardly be any longer a state of 
trial. To contend against the difficulty in question, — 
to labor not only with diligence and patience, but " with 
fear and trembling" also, that is, with anxious and 
humble self-distrust, — is the very task assigned us in 
this our state of preparation. But if, while the Chris- 
tian puts forth all his own powers in this task, he at 
the same time earnestly and importunately prays for 
heavenly guidance, and relies with deep humility on 
Him who alone can crown those efforts with success, 
he will be continually approaching nearer and nearer 



OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



199 



to " a right judgment in all things," and to a correspond- 
ing perfection of life.. 

And in referring to and studying the Scriptures, though 
no infallible interpreter is to be found, or hoped for, — 
no system of general directions that will absolutely 
secure us against mistake ; yet there are two maxims 
especially, (which have been already adverted to in 
these Essays,) which, studiously dwelt upon, and per- 
petually recalled to our thoughts, will prove a safeguard 
against many and various errors. The one is, to re- 
member that in studying the Scriptures we are consult- 
ing the Spirit of truth ; and therefore must, if we would 
hope for his aid, search honestly and earnestly for the 
truth, not for a confirmation of our preconceived no- 
tions, or a justification of the system, or the practice, 
to which we may be inclined. This maxim is the more 
frequently transgressed, from men's falsely persuading 
themselves that they have complied with it : the con- 
clusions which they arrive at, they, of course, believe 
to be true ; and thence, from their having, as they sup- 
pose, found truth, they take for granted that it was for 
truth they were seeking. But a desire to have Scrip- 
ture on our side is one thing ; and a sincere desire to 
be on the side of Scripture, is another. 

And, finally, in combination with this rule, we should 
also keep constantly in mind that of seeking in Scrip- 
ture not only for truth, but for practical truth, with a 
view to the improvement of our life and heart : this is 
an express condition on which spiritual aid in enlighten- 
ing the understanding is promised: "if any man will 
do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine." 
We must seek therefore in the Scriptures, by the aid of 
him who gave them, not for speculative knowledge 
respecting the intrinsic nature of God, or of the human 
soul, but for practical knowledge concerning the rela- 



200 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

tions existing between God and the soul of man, that 
we may be enabled to serve and please him the better ; 
and that 44 the inspiration of his Holy Spirit may 
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts," and fit us for en- 
joying the more immediate presence of our Master in 
his triumphant kingdom. 44 The secret things belong 
unto the Lord our God ; but those things which are 
revealed, belong unto us and to our children for ever, 
that we may do all the words of this law," 



THE END. 



IXDEX, 



A. 

Acts of the Apostles, contents and de- 
sign of. 37. 

Adam, federal headship of. 109 — 
imputation of his sin, 109, 116 ss. 

Anticipations in assertion, 36 n, 89. 

Antinomianism. its character and 
prevalence. 99 s, 124 s, — not estab- 
lished by the entire abrogation of the 
law, 95 s, 99. 

Apocrypha, retention of by the Ro- 
manists, 21. 

Apostles, extent of their delegated au- 
thority, 34 — limits of their miracu- 
lous powers. 181 s — their power of 
conveying miraculous gifts, 172 s — 
not uniformly infallible,. 1 5 7 — differ- 
ence between their preaching, and 
that of Christ. 32 ss — their no- 
tions of Christ, 163 s. 

Argument, unsound, not to be used, 
20. 

Arianism, prevalent tendency to, 114 

72, 

Aristotle quoted. 160 s. 
Arminians, arguments of. 53. 74. 
Assurance. SI ss. 197. 
Attributes of God. manifested in his 

government. 74 s. 
Authoritv. its influence on opinion. 17. 



Baptism, 191 s. 
, infant. 192. 

c. 

Called, meaning of the term. 56, 59 ss. 

Calvinism, a speculative question, 71 
— objections to, 58, 74 — how inju- 
rious, 7S — doctrines falsely claimed 
as belonging to it, 77. 

Candor, a habit of. not unattainable, 9. 

Ceremonial law, 93 ss. 

Certainty, use of the term. 71. 

Charity, 177. 

Chosen, meaning of the term, 56, 59 
ss. 

Christ, his mode of teaching, 13, 137 



— how he preached the Gospel, 32 
ss — the true object of his coming. 
35 — his death, our redemption, 113 
— his holiness, 113 — how made sin 
for us, 118 s — his promise to be 
with his Church, 170. 

Christianity, not a new religion, 51 s 
— not national, 62 — evidence to, 
from its predicted opposition, 154 n, 
from miraculous gifts, 173 s — not 
fully revealed in the gospels alone, 
33 ss — peculiarly characterized by 
its pretension to truth, 5 — sometimes 
enforced by improper sanctions, 22. 

Christians, called on to make sacri- 
fices for Christ's sake, 155 — gov- 
erned by principles, not rules, 101 s 
— obligations of. to virtue, 92. 104 
— peculiarly obligated to a scrupu- 
lous adherence to truth, 6, to study 
the O. T., 54 — share in the promise 
of the Spirit made to the apostles, 
166 — trials of, at the present day, 
196. 

Church, Christian, in place of the 
Jewish. 62 — its nature. 191 — enjoys 
the influences of the Spirit in a pe- 
culiar manner, 163 s. 

Circumstances of an author to be 
known, to understand him, 50. 

Clearness not to be expected in all re- 
vealed doctrines, 141. 163. 

Commandments, the ten, not the 
source of moral obligation, 96, ad- 
dressed exclusively to the Israelites, 
97 s, how binding on Christians, 
93. 

Communion of saints, 193 n. 

Comparison, instruction by, 143 s. 

Confidence, Christian. 84* ss — of suc- 
cess, its effects, 89 — of Paul, in 
temporal difficulties, 88, relative to 
his own end, 91, relative to the final 
salvation of his converts, 81. 

Contingent, meaning of the term, 73. 

Contradictions, supposed, in Scripture, 
127 ss, how to be regarded, 135, in- 
stances of, 136 s. 

Controversy, 103. 



202 



INDEX. 



D. 

Death, a consequence of Adam's sin } 
109. 

Discrepancies of Scriptures, 131 ss, 
147. 

Dispensations, relation of the Old and 

New, 54 s. 
Doctrines of St. Paul, 45 s— falsely 

claimed as Calvinistic, 77. 
Doubt, aversion to, 15 — preferable to 

error, 16 — concerning the spiritual 

state, 83. 

Duties, insignificant, with what intent 
enjoined, 158. 

E. 

Elect, meaning of the term, 56, 59 ss, 
66. 

Election, arbitrary, 59 s, 62 — condi- 
tional, 60 s, 64 s — national, 60, 63 
— how to be preached, 79 s — theo- 
ries of, 56 s. 

Epistles, apostolical, the chief source 
of instruction in the Gospel, 37 ss, 
their nature, 38 — of Paul, their 
value, 30 ss, 38, how to be studied, 
42 s, 51 s, how treated, 29 ss, 46 s, 
why disliked, 45 s, explained by 
the Old Testament, 58 s. 

Error, not to be sanctioned, because 
deemed beneficial, 20 — prevalence 
of, no sanction, 18, 123 — worse than 
doubt, 16. 

Errors, speculative, not harmless, 78, 
99, 107, 123— dispositions leading 
to, 160. 

Establishment of religion, its effect, 3. 
Evangelists, their design in writing, 
36. 

Evidence to Christianity, from its 
predicted opposition, 154 n, from 
the extraordinary gifts of the 
Spirit, 173 s. 

Evil, existence of, 75. 

Eucharist, 193 n. 

Expediency, no sanction for opinion, 
19, 25. 

F. 

Faith, peculiar use of the term, 180 s 
— in Christ, 35— the demand of, 
a peculiar characteristic of Chris- 
tianity, 5 — the Christian principle of 
morals, 149 — should lead to the 
support of truth at all hazards, 24. 

Figurative teaching of Scripture, 
138 s. 

Foreknowledge, and election, 57 n — 

how it implies necessity, 72. 
Frauds, pretended pious, 6 s, 22. 



G. 

Gifts of the Spirit, 171 ss. 
Gnostics, 164, n. 

God, his attributes, how taught, 138. 

Gospel, ambiguity of the term, 31 s — 
distaste for, how generated, 84 — 
does not release from moral obliga- 
tion, 100 s — does not lay down a 
system of moral precepts, 148 — 
governs by furnishing principles, 
not rules, 101 s, 148 ss — how 
preached by Christ and his apos- 
tles, 32 ss — its morality higher than 
that of the law, 101, 149— its privi- 
leges arbitrarily bestowed, 62 — 
mysteries of, 133 n — not to be blend- 
ed with the Law, 54 — peculiarities 
of its moral precepts, 152 ss. 

Gospels, their contents and design, 
36 — not the full revelation of Chris- 
tianity, 33. 

Grace, above gifts, 177 s — reality of 
its operation, 189 s — signs of, 188 s. 

Guilt, supposed imputation of to 
Christ^ 110 s. 

H. 

Heart, meaning of the term, 69 n. 
Hinds on the Propagation of Chris- 
tianity, 175 n. 

I. 

Imputation of Adam's sin, 108 s, 116 s 
— ofCHRi st' s obedience, 110, 114 s= 

Imputed righteousness, 107 ss. 

Incidental allusions, US. 

Indifference in the search of truth, 10. 

Infallibility not to be attained, 198. 

Infant baptism, 192. 

Inspiration, of Scripture, plenary, 21 
— of the apostles, 34, 187 — of Paul, 
51, 183, 185— tokens of, 182 s. 

Instruction, gradual, 13 — by contrary 
comparisons, 142 s. 

Intellectual powers in competition 
with the feelings, 11. 

Interpretation of "Scripture, 7 s, 66 ss, 

J. 

Justification. 120 s. 

K. 

Knowledge conveyed in Scripture, its- 
nature, 141 ss. 

Em 

j Law, abolition of, 92 ss, 143— and 
! Gospel, not to be blended, 54, 101 — 
! distinction of, into moral and cere. 



INDEX. 



203 



monial, 93, 96 — differs from the 
Gospel, in laying down precise 
rules, 101 ss, 148 ss — its sanctions 
not to be ascribed to the Gospel, 
23, 58 — Levitical, no longer bind- 
ing, 22, 97. 

Law of faith, a proper appellation of 
the Gospel, 149 s. 

Levitical law, abrogation of, 92 ss — 
not binding on Christians, 22, 97 — 
how useful to Christians, 97. 

Lord's day, its sanction, 22. 

M. 

Metaph}'sical language, 139 — ques- 
tions concerning fate and freewill, 
71 s. 

Milton, 115 n. 

Miracles, gift of, 170 s, its cessation. 
176 — pretended, their origination, 
6 — use of, to the Church, 167. 

Moral code of the Gospel, principles, 
not rules, 101 s, 148 ss — law, 93 ss 
— obligation, independent of the 
Mosaic law, 95 ss — precepts, mode 
of conveying in the New Testa- 
ment, 146 ss, of the Gospel, pecu- 
liarities of, 152 ss. 

Mystery, meaning of the term, 133 n. 
N. 

Necessity, use of the term, 72. 
Novelty," dread of, 18. 

O. 

Obedience of Christ, 110, 114 s. 

Old Testament, a key to the Epistles, 
58 s — to be studied by Christians, 
54 — use of, in the New, 51 ss. 

Original sin, 109. 

Originality, desire of, 17. 

P. 

Paley quoted, 23 n. 

Parable of the talents, 69— of the wed- 
ding garment, 66. 

Paul, circumstances in which he | 
wrote, 50 s, of those to whom he 
wrote, 52 s — did not teach the impu- i 
tation of sin and righteousness, 108 | 
ss — his character and motives, 28 n j 
— his confidence of the final suc- 
cess of his ministry, 81— his doc- 
trine concerning the abrogation of 
the Law, 93 ss — his mode of teach- 
ing Christian morals, 103 s — his 
use of means, 87 s — his writings, 
how to be studied, 42 s, 51s, not to 
be neglected, 40 ss, objections to, 45 
s, 124, their fate, 29 ss, 44, 124, their 
value, 30 ss, 49— peculiar treatment 
which he has received, 26 ss — re 
ality of his inspiration, 183, 185. 



Perfection, Christian, 180. 
Perseverance, final, 81 ss. 
Pharaoh, hardening of his heart. 69 & 
Philippi, origin of the Church at, 29. 
Philosophical sects, did not always 
pretend to truth, 2 — their views of 
the popular religions, 3 s. 
Pilate's question, 4. 
Pious frauds, 6. 
Positive ordinances, 96. 
Practical teaching of the Scriptures. 

147, 193 ss. 
Preaching of Christ and the apos- 
tles, how different, 32 ss — the true, 
126 — for expediency, 13, 19 — of as- 
surance, 84 s, 91 — of election, 79 s". 
Primitive Christians, gifts of the 
Spirit enjoyed by, 172 ss — trials 
of their faith, 195. 
Principles inculcated by Christ and 

his apostles, 159 s. 
Promises given to the Church, 191. 
Providence, analogy of, in favor of ar- 
bitrary conditional election, 65. 

R. 

Redemption, universality of, 117. 
Religions, false, systems of precise- 
rules, 103 — popular and philosophi- 
cal, 2 s — not always established on 
the pretence of truth, 1 s. 
Repentance, how ascribed to God, 
136. 

Revelation, additions to it not allowa- 
ble, 107 — false, 185 — its object, 111 
— not injured by the progress of any 
truth, 24 — not speculative, but prac- 
tical, 75, 78, 129 s, 132. 
Rewards, temporal, do not belong to 

the Gospel, 22 ss. 
Rhetoric, study of, not favorable to the 

love of truth, 2. 
Righteousness, imputed, 107 ss— of 

Christ, 115 n, 119. 
Romish Church, its practices, 12S — 
errors, their effects, 18, 21, why 
countenanced, 18, 22. 
Rules, precise, not given in the Gos- 
pel, 101 s, 105, 148 ss — preferred 
by the natural man, 103, 150 — re- 
fused by St. Paul, 104. 



Sabbath, an ordinance of universal 
extent, 106 n — duty of its observ- 
ance by Christians, 106 n — its sanc- 
tion, 22, 105 n. 

Saints, application of the term to the 
primitive Christians, 172, 179. 

Salvation, conditional, 16, 70 s, 79 — 



INDEX* 



not independent of virtue, 93 — 
scheme of, how preached by 
Christ, 32 s— terms of, 153. 

Scripture, designed for practical use, 
78, 129 s— difficulties in, 39, 127 ss 
in what spirit to be interpreted, 7 s, 
68, 130, 145 — its design misunder- 
stood, 129 8^-howto be studied, 197 
ss — not to be partially studied, 40, 
126 — not to be used in detached 
portions, 134— plenary inspiration 
of, 21 — requisites for their study, 
43 s — use of, for the settling of faith, 
196 ss — use of terms in, not always 
uniform, 66 s, 121, 130. 

Security, false, 85. 

Sermon on the Mount, 102 n. 

Shakspeare's Macbeth, 89 n 

Sin-offering, 118 s. 

Sophistry, to be shunned from princi- 
ple, 20. 

Spirit, a personal agent, 166 s — aid 
of, to what extent to be expected, 
170 ss, 188 — agency of, in the inspi- 
ration of the apostles, 51 — claim to, 
given in baptism, 191 — fruits of, 
178, 188 — influence o£ 163 ss, per- 
tains in a peculiar degree to the 
Church of Christ, 168, its signs, 
180 ss, 197 — offices of] in the Chris- 
tian covenant, 169 — promise of, 165 
s, 170 — teaching of, by the apostles, 
not to be slighted, 36 — the teacher of 
Christian morals, 106 — tokens of 
his inward operation, 186 ss, 197. 

Spirit of Christ, what, 115 n. 

Sumner's Apostolical Preaching, 70 n. 

System, preference of, to truth, 120. 

T« 

Talents, Parable of the, 69. 
Temporal sanctions, erroneously as- 
cribed to the Gospel, 22, 55. 
Terms, used in Scripture, how to be 

interpreted, 66 s, 121, 130 — 
Texts, illustrated and explained :— 



[Matt. 


iv. 23—32. 


tt 


v. 39 s.— 156. 


u 


vi. 3—153. 


ti 


x. 24—33 s. 




x. 34—155. 




xviii. 9 — 156. 




xx. 16 — 66 s. 


ft 


xxi. 21—180. 


it 


xxii. 14—66 s. 


Luke 


i. 1 ss.— 36 s. 


<( 


x. 16—34. 


u 


x. 37—158. 




xiv. 8—157. 


it 


xiv. 26—154. 



tt 


xxiv. 32 — 184. 


John 


vi. 53—193 n. 


tt 


v i. 63 — 194 n. 


tt 


vii. 39—168 s. 


it 


xiii. 14—158. 


Cl 


xiv. 10 — 164. 


ti 


xv. 4—166. 


tt 


xvi. 12—14. 


tt 


xvi. 13—33. 


tt 


xviii. 38 — 4. 


Acts 


xiii. 46 — 52. 


(( 


xix. 2 — 168. 


a 


xxvii. 31 — 88. 


Romans 


ii. 25—122. 




i v . 25 — 122. 


tt 


v. 1 s.— 122. 


tt 


v. 12—122. 


tt 


v. 19—112 s. 


tt 


vi. 1 to 10—94 s, 


tt 


vii. 6—92. 


tt 


vii, 7—95. 


tt 


vii. 22 s.— 122, 


tt 


viii. 29—57 n. 


t. 


ix. 11—60. 


(( 


ix. 18—69 s. 


tt 


ix. 21—68. 


1 Cor. 


iii. 2—14. 




x. 11—53, 64. 


it 


x. 16— 194 n. 




xii. 13—193 71. 194 



2 Cor. v. 21— 118 s. 
Gal. iii. 24— 54. 
Philip, i. 6—81. 
Col. i. 19— 164 n. 
" . ii. 9 — 164 n. 
2 Timothy iv. 6—91. 

1 Peter i. 2—57 n, 

2 Peter iii. 16—38 s. 
Transubstantiation, 193 n. 
Truth, always expedient, 9 ss — forsa 

ken for system, 120 — gradually i 
parted, 13, 23— love of, 7 s, 20, 25 
maintenance of, 23 s, 41 s — Pilate 
question concerning, 4 — progress 
23 s — perversion of, 12 s — obj< 
tions against strict adherence to, 
ss, 2— search of, 9, 23 s, 6— to 
the first question, 15 ss — not always 
presented as the ground of belief 
a religion, 1 ss. 
Types in the old dispensation, 55. 

U.* 

Unitarians, their objections to St 
Paul, 46. 

V. 

Vulgar error, 18. 

W. 

Wrath, how attributed to God, 1 1 1 n 






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